


The Hitchhiker's Guide to Different Dimensions

by ButterflyBunny



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sliders, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Adorable FitzSimmons (Agents of SHIELD), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Artist Steve Rogers, BAMF Maria Hill, Car Accidents, Character Death, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Dead Phil Coulson, Deaf Clint Barton, F/M, Inter-dimensional travel, M/M, Mystery, Nick Fury is Not Amused, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Relationship(s), Romance, Science Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Slow Build, Stripper Natasha Romanoff, Tony Stark Feels, Travel, Weird Plot Shit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-06-05 20:55:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 42,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6723010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ButterflyBunny/pseuds/ButterflyBunny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I am sorry for the inconvenience, Tony. But the circumstances of my death are even more extraordinary than you might have thought”</p><p>When Tony's old college professor is found dead he goes to investigate what really happened, taking his co-worker Bruce Banner with him. When Tony said there was something else going on, he didn't exactly imagine... Well, all of that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Silver Suitcase

**Author's Note:**

> You know that really old TV show called "Sliders". You know when you haven't thought about something for a while and then you suddenly remember... Well, that's how this fic happened.
> 
> Throw a little bit of Stony, some Bucky, Clintasha friendship and here we are... Enjoy.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When his old college professor is found dead in is home, Tony Stark decides to investigate further. He and his friend, Bruce Banner, go in the search for answers but end up finding trouble.

He could hear them destroying everything in the office above him, from books being thrown to his paintings, the ones he hung about his desk, being ripped off the walls. The heavy steps of the boots against the wooden floor and the occasional crash of glass shattering on the room. with shaky hands he finished closing the metal suitcase, the letter he had been writing minutes before was left in a place only the man it was meant for could and would find it.

He takes his glasses of and rub his eyes. As he pressed the silent alarm, the doors from his secret lab burst open and six men enter the room with guns and one man behind them. He reached for the gun under the table in time, though, and pointing it to them he panted, his hands shaking and his sight clouded because he hadn’t have time to put them back on.

A cold low chuckle fills the room. Barely audible for him over the sound of his heart beating so fast he thinks it will burst out of his chest. The man starts clapping, slowly, and he can see the confusion in the men with the guns’ faces, he charges the gun, now pointing at the man.

“You didn’t possibly think you were going to be able to hide from me”

“Why are you doing this?”

Obadiah Stane smiles widely at him, “You stole something from me, Yinsen”

“It was never yours to start with”

“I financed-“

“Howard Stark did!”

“Howard Stark is dead!”

“You killed him!”

Stane rolls his eyes, “Give it to me”

Yinsen shakes his head, closing his eyes hard for a few seconds, “This power… This power is not- not safe in your hands”

“Power?” Stane gives a few steps more towards him, “I think I can handle myself with it” He grins, just for his smile to disappear a second later, “Give it to me”

“No”

“Yinsen” Obie insists, giving a step froward.

“Stay there!” Yinsen yells, “I swear to God, Obie, you give one more step!”

“Or what?” He chuckles, “You are going to kill me?”

“I will rather die before it ends in your filthy hands, Stane” Yinsen cocks the gun and the men surrounding Stane raise theirs, “You will never find it”

Before he looks back at Stane he clings to the small feeling of hope the hidden suitcase give him. He offers a smile, his lips curving up the slightest before he pulls the trigger. One of the other men pulls the trigger too. One shot in the head and Yinsen falls. They move fast to reach for the gun in Yinsen’s hand only to realise it was empty.

“You stupid little shit” Stane mutters.

He pulls a handkerchief out of his pocket and cleans the gun carefully, wiping any evidence than anyone other than Yinsen touched it.

Stane hears the sirens before he can see the flashing red and blue lights in the distance. He signals the men to leave.

“Sir, we haven’t searched this room” One of the men, Rumlow, says.

“It won’t be necessary” Stane reassures him, “Tony Stark will lead us to it”

 

* * *

 

 

“I am tired of this, Tony!” A loud crash and he dodges yet another plate thrown to the wall behind him.

The same plates Pepper had carefully picked for the dinner with her parents that Tony had missed the night before. He walks towards Pepper carefully, since he is wearing nothing but a pair of dark boxers he is afraid to step on the shattered glass.

“I told you, Pep, I wasn’t able to arrive!”

“My father told me! My mom warned me! Heck, everyone at the office!”

Pepper glares at him, and Tony is more grateful that she had stopped yelling than the fact that she isn’t throwing anymore plates.

The silence that followed wasn’t any more comforting than the yelling or the flying plates though, he loved Pepper, he really did, just not in the way she loved him, or the way she deserved to be loved. She had been his friend long before they moved to a more intimate relationship and the past few months they had both wished they had never given that step. Pepper is flushed angry and Tony feels more exhausted than anything.

The night before, Obie had taken him to a club to celebrate his 39th birthday, and to ask him more of those weird questions he asked so often lately.

He throws himself in the nearest couch and sighs.

“I can’t keep waiting for you, Tony”

He looks at her, and nods, because she knows he understands exactly what she mean. She chuckles sadly and walks towards him, she doesn’t sit close to him, but she sits close enough for him to feel the cushion sink with her weight. She doesn’t touch him but he can see her smile softly. She understands.

He loves her.

He wishes he loved her the way she deserves to be loved.

After Pepper leaves he goes back to Stark Industries. He had been working with Dr. Bruce Banner for the past few months and he can almost feel like they are friends, is not something he would say out loud, he wasn’t the touchy feely kind of man, he had never been. As soon as he enters the laboratory he can see something is wrong. People are whispering to each other and passing a newspaper around. Bruce touches his shoulder making him jump.

“What is going on?” Tony asks, "Please tell me it isn't another paternity claim"

“I think you need to see this” Bruce takes him to where the TV is and turns it on in the news channel.

Tony takes his glasses off and runs a hand through his hair while he read the headline, Bruce looks at him sympathetically and he takes a hand into his chest, trying to control his heartbeat.

“Dr. Ho Yinsen committed suicide a few days before his body was found in his home-“

Tony turns the TV off before the woman finishes the sentence. Bruce looks at him with the corner of his eye, he knows about Tony’s relationship with Yinsen. He had mentioned something about him being like the cool uncle he had never had and by the way Tony had paled, his death had really affected him.

He puts a hand on Tony’s shoulder and squeezes softly.

“I’m sorry“

Tony nods softly, “He… I talked to him just last week”

“Maybe he had been struggling with something…. Maybe…”

A voice makes Bruce look at the entrance. Tony doesn’t need to look up to know Pepper had arrived, the fast way she walked and the sound of her expensive heels against the floor. She hugs Tony tight as soon as she reaches them and he holds her back, inhaling the faint familiar smell of channel cologne he had gotten so used to wake up to.

“I’m so sorry” She pulls back to look at him in the eyes, “I came as soon as my contact called me from the new station”

Tony nods, “When’s the funeral?”

Pepper kisses Bruce’s cheek, “Well, they will contact the family-”

“He didn’t have any family” Tony says, “He… He was alone”

Bruce and Pepper exchange looks and then they both look at Tony, who looks pensive, tapping his fingers against the wooden desk. Pepper pulls out her phone and types for a few seconds.

“I can have something ready for tomorrow”

“Thanks, Pep” Pepper nods, “I… I will be leaving then” She kisses his cheek rapidly and then gives Bruce a nod before she leaves.

Tony runs a hands through his hair and face, before sighing heavily. Bruce is still standing behind him awkwardly. Bruce hadn’t met Ho Yinsen, not like Tony or Pepper, but Tony had talked about his old college professor to him several times before, saying he was like a second father to him.

“I met him on my very first day at MIT” Tony says, “I became his protege almost immediately”

“I know how much he must have-“

“Something’s not right about this”

Bruce frowns, “What?”

Tony pulls his phone out of his pocket and looks at the hour, “He didn’t kill himself just like that he-“

“Are you saying he- Are you saying someone killed- killed him?” Bruce whispers the last part.

Tony grabs a pen and starts writing in a post-it, while he hold the phone against his ear with the other, “Listen, Bruce, meet me at this address at midnight”

“At midnight? Tony are you-“

Bruce doesn’t take the yellow piece of paper, instead shaking his head confused while Tony rolls his eyes and sticks it in his shirt. He leaves before Bruce can ask anything and he groans after he reads it, because is the address of Yinsen’s home.

 

* * *

 

Bruce doesn’t know why the hell does he go in the first place. Is a crime scene, kind of since the man did killed himself according to the news, it’s dark and it had been raining so it’s freezing.

He crunches the yellow post-it and puts it in his jacket before he hugs himself. He had seen plenty movies to know he had to wait in the other side of the street, hidden behind the big tree. He chuckles because of how stupid he sounds in his head, and how suspicious he must look hidden in the shadows, praying no one sees him there he looks at his watch, it is ten past eleven o’clock.

“I’m going to kill you, Tony” He mutters.

“Did you bring any snacks?”

He jumps and puts a hand on his chest, “Jesus! Tony!”

The man smirks at him.

He presses his lips and rolls his eyes, “Why am I even here?” He asks rhetorically.

“I told you to come” Tony answers anyways.

“I’m an idiot, that’s why”

He mutters to himself while following Tony, who had already started to walk towards the house.

The lights are out, and the windows and doors seem close, he is about to ask Tony how he is going to enter when he hears the shattering of a window. Tony reaches inside and unlocks one of the windows from the inside.

“Tony!”

“What?”

“This is wrong, this is so so-“

When Tony opens the window he looks inside before he turns to Bruce, “Look Bruce, you can leave at any time”

“Now you tell me!?”

“But” Tony walks towards him, “I need you here”

Bruce sighs heavily and Tony stares at him for a few seconds, “If we go to jail for this, Tony, I swear-“

“I will bail you out! I swear!”

The house inside is clean.

Not a single thing looks out of place and Bruce wonders if there is a reason why Tony can’t accept that Yinsen killed himself other than the fact that the man was like a father to him. He wants to ask, just to get it out of the way, but he keeps quiet, because he knows when Tony is up to something he doesn’t just it go.

“See? Nothing weird” He says.

Tony looks at him and raises and eyebrow, “Really? Look at this place, is squeaky clean!”

Bruce sighs, “So?”

“Bruce, have you've seen my lab? Why on earth would a brillant mind like Yinsen have a place this clean?”

He follows Tony to the lab they were talking about in the news, still there was no evidence of… struggle. He stands in the entrance as Tony looks around. It looks like he doesn’t know what he is looking for either, but he is definitely looking for something. The only strange thing about the place is the dead animals in the wall, taxidermy had always being creepy to Bruce.

“I feel like that owl is looking at me” Bruce mutters, “What are you-“

“I am looking for something that tells me why would someone kill him” Tony says.

Bruce licks his lips, “Look, I know is hard”

“This place was my father’s before he got married to my mom” Tony starts, “That why my father insisted on me going to MIT, he said that the best professor was there”

“I didn’t know your father knew Yinsen”

“They were buddies, yeah” Tony nods, “He worked with him at Stark Industries for a few years, on some secret projects”

"Secret projects?"

"Yeah" Tony nods, "The Arc project, the hovering car, Project rebirth... things like that"

"Not so secret if you know" Bruce says.

Tony chuckles.

Bruce hums and moves around the room, not really wanting to touch anything. He looks outside the window just in case. Time passes and he looks at his watch, it’s almost one and not a single soul had walked in front of the house.

“How did Yinsen end up working at MIT then? I mean… being a professor can’t be better”

Tony shrugs, “The project they were working went to shit and he was fired”

“Why wasn’t your father fired?”

Tony laughs, “He kinda owned Stark Industries, Bruce” Bruce chuckles.

Tony suddenly becomes awfully quiet, not even moving furniture anymore.

“I can’t believe is still here”

“What is it?”

“I said my father lived here” He looks at Bruce, who nods, “Well, when I was about six, he brought me here, before anyone else bought it, and I came here to the study room and, the house hadn’t been occupied in a while so the wood was so old, and I fell here”

Tony pulls a hammer out of his coat and hits the floor.

“What the-”

“What? Is not like Yinsen would mind”

He does it again.

Bruce pulls out his phone and starts typing while Tony keeps hammering the floor, “What are you doing?”

“I’m googling how much time do they give you for breaking and entering, destroying private property…” Tony chuckles, “murder, because I’m definitely killing you if we get caught!“

Tony gives the final hit.

“Holy fuck”

Bruce blinks, “Wh- what?”

Tony rips the remaining of the wood and pulls out a silver suitcase. Attached to it, there is a letter, and Bruce adjusts his glasses to read what is written in tick black ink. Before he can say it, Tony looks at him and licks his lips.

“This is for me”

 

* * *

 

He hears Bucky screaming before he can do anything about it. He knew working late at the Paper Factory was a bad idea but Bucky had insisted on doing the extra hours, when he was finally able to make his boss, Zola, turn the machine off he ran towards his friend, now trapped in it. His left arm, what was left attached to the rest of him, was covered in blood and Steve almost vomits because he could see the bone almost completely split in half.

“Oh, my God, Buck!” He screams.

“Stev- Steve! Get me out!”

Steve pulls him away from the cutting machine. Bucky looks at him and then at the ceiling, while Steve rips his shirt and ties it around the arm to stop the bleeding.

“Help! Somebody help!”

“What the fuck happened?!” Zola yells.

“You didn’t give the red light, fucker!” Steve yells, “He was still- his arm was still-“

“Fuck” The man says in shock, “It like hanging-“

“Holy fuck how bad is it? Stevie, how bad- how bad is it?” Bucky asks, “Did-“

“I already called an ambulance“ Zola says, turning to leave.

“He doesn’t have insurance!” Steve exclaims.

“Like I give a shit!” Zola yells before disappearing to his office.

By the time the ambulance arrives Bucky is barely lucid. One of the paramedics, a woman, puts Bucky inside and start patching him up, Steve knows that the police will arrive too and because Bucky is a wanted man, he also knows they will take him away. Steve considers his options for a seconds, while the paramedic finishes sewing Bucky up.

The paramedic closes the door and tells something to the other one, a man, she then leaves to talk to Zola, who is doing a great job pretending to care. Steve clenches his jaw and is about to go there when the man talks to him.

“He is stable for now, and the bleeding will stop but we need to go the hospital” He says, “You are going to have to stay here with your boss to make a statement to the police”

Steve swallows. And he can see Bucky inside the ambulance looking at him, so he does what he has to.

“I’m so sorry about this” Steve says, and then punches the paramedic hard enough to make him fall and runs towards the ambulance.

“What-“ Bucky looks confused as Steve throws his right arm around his neck, “Steve don’t do this”

Steve shakes his head and sits him in the passengers sit, moving to the drivers seat afterwards. He pushes the paramedic to the ground when the man tries to stop him again.

“What are you doing!?” The paramedic yells, “Help! Help!”

“I’m so sorry! I’m sorry!” Steve says.

He turns the engine on and drives away. All he needs is to take him to a private hospital where they won’t ask questions, lose the ambulance and Bucky will be safe. Zola won't say anything since he didn't ask Bucky's paperwork before hiring him. He sees the two paramedics and Zola running behind him before he turns the street and then looks at Bucky.

“Buck, Are you alright?” He asks.

The man looks at the road, “I’m sorry, Steve”

Steve shakes his head, “You would do this for me”

Bucky looks at him and smiles softly, "I would"

“Until the end of the line” Steve says.

“Until the end of the line, pal”

 

* * *

  

The music stops and she finishes dancing. The crowd applauds and whistles as she leaves the stage, Jean rolls her eyes at her as she passes her and she offers her a small smile. Smile that disappears as soon as she notices Ross follow her to the small room he insists she should call her dressing room – Just because he got a sticker with her fake name on it, doesn’t make it fancy – She opens the door with the name “Black Widow” on it and doesn’t even bother in closing it.

“Your moves are getting... Stiffy” Ross says, his nose wrinkling.

“Is that your way to tell me I’m getting old?” She forces a smile and then rolls her eyes.

Natasha removes the blond wig first, throwing it on Ross’ face. He presses his lips and flicks his tongue, with a heavy sigh he throws an envelope with her name on it. She stops mid-putting her shoes on and grabs it, she purses her lips when she opens and counts quietly.

“Two hundred missing” She says and continues to change.

“The window”

She turns and presses her lips, “He touched me”

“Well, he was paying”

“Not enough” She raises and eyebrow defiantly, "I'm a dancer, not a prostitute"

“He had to get stitches, Widow, how is he going to explain that to his wife?”

“I’ll write him an apology letter” She says, “Or maybe I should apologize in person? Maybe even apologize to his wife for having a pig for a husband?”

Ross presses his lips, nostrils flaring. She finishes dressing and throws the envelope in her purse. Putting the coat on she leaves, before she can walk outside the door, Ross grabs her arm.

“Take tomorrow free” He says, “I want you here on Saturday”

With that she leaves.

It is cold outside, and the streets are slippery since it had been raining so she walks to he car slowly. She hears the whistle before the three men come into her view. A tall one, one with greasy hair and a muscular one. Neither of them scary enough to make her nervous.

“Keep walking boys” She says, “You don’t want this to end up badly”

And when they don’t stop she sighs and stops. She kicks Greasy Hair first, right in the crotch, when Tall One is about to grab her she knees him on the chest, Greasy Hair tried grabbing her leg but she punches him two, three time before he is able to. When he is down, Muscles holds her neck and she can’t scape his grasp. She can’t breath and tries to elbow his ribs.

“Three against one lady? Come on, guys”

Muscles makes a sound and releases her, she falls to the pavement and coughs, struggling to breath for a few seconds. Another man knocks Muscles with what looks like a long spear and then Tall One raises his arms defeated.

“That right, punk, beat it unless you want one” The guy leaves running and the other man chuckles.

He then looks at Natasha and offers her a hand. She stands without grabbing it and searches for her bag.

“Here”

She takes it and throws it over her shoulder, “I had it under control”

And she starts walking away.

“A thank you was enough” The man yells at her.

She considers it, but instead she flips him off.

Natasha gets to her car finally, her feet hurt, she has a headache and her fucking busted lip is sore, not to mention she is cold as fuck. When reaches inside the purse for her keys, she realises the envelope of money is gone. She panicks for a second before remembering the man that helped her had had a hold of it before she reached it.

“Son of a bitch”

 

 

* * *

 

 

There are six things inside the suitcase.

A weird looking remote control, a thick old looking leather notebook, A new red moleskin, a pocket watch, a compass, and a picture of Tony’s parents with Yinsen.

Bruce stands on the other side of the room while Tony examines the contents of the suitcase Yinsen apparently left him. He opens the old leather book first and Bruce looks outside the window, for some reason worried.

“This belonged to my father” Tony says, “It’s about the project”

“The project he worked with Yinsen?” Tony nods, “Why would he still have that?”

“Fuck, Bruce” Tony says, “The project wasn’t cancelled” he passes the pages, “They finished it, they- they made it” Bruce frowns, “The others involved considered too dangerous so they shut it down from public knowledge and moved it to a secret base, when they finished it they agreed to destroy it but- but- my father… He and Yinsen stole it without anyone’s knowledge”

“Destroyed what?”

Tony reaches inside the suitcase, “This” he shows him the odd looking remote control, “It’s some kind of remote”

Bruce looks at him confused, “a remote for what?“ A sound makes Bruce look outside the window, “Tony, are you sure no one knew about this?”

“Yeah, Why?” He asks.

“Because there is people coming and they don’t look very happy”

Tony walks towards him and looks outside the window. Bruce recognises them after he sees the expression in Tony’s face. Obadiah Stane, is the head of Stark Industries, he knows him because Tony had left a few nights ago to celebrate his birthday with the man.

“It was him” Tony whispers, “He killed Yinsen”

Tony moves to the desk and closes the suitcase. Bruce shakes his head and stands there, not knowing what to do, or why did Tony arrived to that conclusion. Before he can ask, he sees the letter and opens it. It has a date, it was written the same day he died, but contrary to what Bruce initially thought it wasn’t a suicide note.

 

_I am sorry for the inconvenience, Tony. But the circumstances of my death are even more extraordinary than you might think._

_I would have rather be there with you to tell you about your father and I’s work, to explain everything and see the way your face lights up whenever I talked to you about science or Lord of the Rings, I never knew which one did you enjoyed the most. It is difficult to do it this way, believe me. But I’m afraid time ran out for me, and as your father always said, time does not wait for anyone nor it is kind, not always._

_You will be told lies about me, but I trust that you will make your own conclusions, like the great man you have grown to be._

_Do not trust everyone that had been close to you all these years, Tony, don’t let yourself be blinded by those who swear to protect you. Your father was always too trusting. In that diary you will find everything you need to know about the device._

_You, my dear friend, are going on an adventure._

 

Bruce finishes reading it right before Tony takes it from his hands and puts in in the suitcase. Is when he pulls out a gun and gives the case to Bruce that the man gasps.

“Where the hell did you get that?”

“I’ll explain it-“

When the doors burst open, three men enter the room with guns, one of them is Obie’s bodyguard, Brock Rumlow, Obadiah is behind him. Tony points the gun to them, his hands steady and his sight on Stane. A cold low chuckle fills the room. The man starts clapping, slowly as Tony puts himself between Stane and Bruce, who holds the suitcase hard against his chest.

“Didn’t I say he would lead us right to it?” Obadiah smiles.

“Why Obie?” Tony asks, and Bruce is surprised he sounds actually hurt, “He was your friend”

Obadiah shakes his head, “He was competition” he says, “When I first met the great Howard Stark, Yinsen warned him about me, he said I was dangerous, he said I was trouble”

“Well, he wasn’t wrong” Bruce manages to say.

Obadiah grins, “Give me the case, Tony”

“No” Tony says.

Bruce starts walking back slowly and so does Tony, he is glad they have that strange “ScienceBro” connection like Pepper calls it.

Obadiah chuckles again.

“One more step, and I’ll blow your friend’s head up”

“Blow my friend’s head off and I’ll blow yours right back” Tony clenches his jaw, “You know there are cameras here”

For the first time Obadiah Stane looks taken aback.

Tony chuckles, “The owl, the eagle and the ferret” There are three small statues of those animas hung on the walls, “I sent the footage of the night you killed Yinsen to every god dammed new station in the country” He says, “By tomorrow it will be viral, motherfucker”

Bruce feels a small rush of pride for Tony. Specially for the way Obadiah’s face paled to that, he was either surprised he missed the fact that there were cameras or by Tony’s genius. Maybe even Yinsen’s. Two of the snipers with Stane pointed the guns at him, Rumlow pointed his’ at one of the snipers.

“You are ruined, Stane” Tony adds lowering his gun, “Now take what’s left of your pride and walk to the police station”

Tony and Bruce start leaving when Stane speaks again.

“I should have killed you right after I killed Howard” Stane says, “I almost did, but your stupid whore of a mother got in the way”

Bruce looks at Tony first, before the man turns and pulls the gun out again, “Tony no!”

They say that if your heart beat fast enough the world would simply slow down. Bruce would think later about it and definitely agree.

He sees Tony shooting the gun and Stane running towards them while the three of armed men try to stop him, Bruce reaches for the strange remote and sees the number “10” on the screen, a green light keeps blinking and he presses the button under it. When time goes back to normal, he sees a blue light coming out of it, something like a blast and he feels like someone is pulling him into it.

 

* * *

 

 

“We are almost there, Buck, hang on” Steve says, he looks at Bucky, who is trying hard to keep his eyes open, “at least the bleeding stopped”

“I will… Will pay… for your shirt” Bucky says, “Since- since you couldn’t resist… to take it off…”

“Jerk” Steve offers his best smile given the circumstances and then looks back at the road.

That’s when he sees it, moving towards them a blue light. He is about to stop but then it feels like the ambulance itself is being swallowed by it and then everything becomes too bright for him to be able to see.

 

* * *

 

 

Clint Barton is not a bad man.

Yes, he steals, he cons, but he does it because he needs it, not because it give him some kind of thrill. What did gave him the thrill that night was helping the woman with the red hair, she was giving a good fight but there was no way she could handle the big fella.

Also, she was coming out of “The Red Room” that meant cash. Yes, he felt bad for stealing from a stripper, but she was kinda rude at him.

“Fuck” He mutters.

He turns on his heels and starts walking towards the parking lot, where the woman had gone to when someone bumps into him, when he looks up, he finds green furious eyes glaring at him. Her lips start moving fast while she punches his chest and he wishes he could hear her better, but Muscles kinda fucked up one of his hearing aids.

He changes it from his left ear to the right one and adjusts it.

“-And then you have the audacity to ask me to thank you? Fuck. You!” She pushes him, “Give me my money!” She pushes him again.

“Alright! Alright! Calm down!”

“Calm down? Calm down!?”

“Fine! Don’t calm down!”

She presses her lips and puts a hand on her head and another one on her hip, “Just… give me the money”

Clint licks his lips, “I was going to give it back” He says pulling the envelope out.

She looks take aback by the comment. She takes the envelope back and opens it, counting the money under her breath quietly, frowning slightly when she finishes.

“It’s all here” She says, looking up at him.

He shrugs, “Have a nice night” He does a small salute wave and turns to leave.

“Wait” He turns to her, “What?”

“Why did you gave it back?”

He shrugs, “I kinda felt bad stealing money from someone else who needs it too”

She nods soflty, “Listen, I have eight hundred here” She says opening the envelope, “I only pay three hundred in rent and two in food” She offers him the rest.

He frowns and shakes his head, “I can’t-“

“Just-“ she sighs, “take it”

“It’s too much money, you-“

“Being a stripper pays good, I guess” She says, “I will probably end up spending it on stupid shit or losing it”

He takes it hesitantly, “But if I ever see you again, I swear I will pay you back” he promises, “I’m Clint, by the way”

“Natasha” She shakes his hand, “Also, If you ever want to see me again, you will have to pay a lot of cash”

“Maybe I will see you like a friend”

She feels herself smiling, a genuine smile she can’t stop. The man, Clint, smiles and then frowns softly. She turns to see and gives a few steps back. Neither of them say anything, staring in awe at the blue light moving towards them.

It’s an explosion, they both think, Clint grabs her arm and for some reason covers her body with his own. At least they aren't alone. If they are dying, that gives some sort of calm to both of them.


	2. How To Turn On An Unknown Device

The first thing Tony registers is the numbness in his fingers. It’s cold and he can barely feel his legs, he also lost track of time and that didn’t help at all the fact that he felt disoriented. He remembers the past minutes before he blacked out and squeezes the gun, still in his left hand, so hard his knuckles go white. The weird device was still in his right hand and he wonders how exactly does it work. But first, Bruce. He stands and puts the device in his coat pocket.

“Bruce!”

He sees the man’s body a few meters away from him and starts walking towards him. He looks around him as he moves, there is snow for some reason, had they been teleported? Maybe to some kind of tundra? Antarctica? He kneels next to Bruce and turns him slowly, looking for any wounds.

“Bruce” He shakes his shoulder softly, “Bruce, come one man, wake up”

Bruce groans softly before opening his eyes, “What the- Tony?" 

Tony sighs relieved and smiles, “Hey, we are alive” he looks around, and Bruce does the same, except he is looking for his glasses, “I just don’t know where we are” he admits looking around.

He sees his friend’s glasses and passes the to him, then helps Bruce up and shakes the snow off of his pants. Bruce picks the suitcase, and nods at Tony, letting him know it was still locked, its content safe and sound, like they both were.

“Do you think… I mean that thing is the reason we are here” Bruce starts, while they both walk, “Do you think it took Stane with us?”

“You tell me” Tony says, not really accusing him, but more curious, “How did you make it work?”

Bruce shrugs, “It had a green light on, I pressed the red button and… there was a blue light… like- like-“

“Like a blast”

Bruce nods, “There was a number in it too, I pressed them-“

The man is tackled before he finishes. One of the armed men that were with Stane is over him and Tony moves quickly to push him off his friend. Bruce was right, they had all been swallowed by the blue light, the explosion. Tony reaches inside the seam of his coat for the gun.

“Get the fuck off him!” Tony yells, pointing the gun at him.

The man stands and raises both arms, “Where are we? Where did- How-“

Tony shakes his head, “We don’t-“

They hear a gun shot and then man’s head bursts open. Bruce swear loudly and throws himself to the ground, Tony just winces when the body falls to the snow and the blood bathes the white completely. Bruce moves behind him, holding the suitcase tight against his chest. Behind them Stane appears, he isn’t wearing a jacket, his white shirt is drenched in blood and he has a sniper rifle in his hand.

“It’s a device to travel through dimensions” Stane says, Bruce and Tony look at eachother, “I apologize for the lack of fancy scientific words”

“Why did you killed him?” Tony asks looking pointedly at the man in the snow, “He was just- “

“Well, his friend did tried to kill me first” Stane points at his bloody shirt, “Give it to me, Tony, unless-“

“Why, Obie?” Tony asks, a heavy weight in his chest remembering about his parents, “They were your family too”

For a second Stane seems to hesitate and then smirks, “They were in the way, Tony, you know what Howard always said about obstacles”

Tony shakes his head, “My mother” he continues, “She didn’t even know about this! Did she?!”

Stane rolls his eyes, “Gime me the goddammed suitcase!”

“I will kill you first” Tony says after a fews seconds, charging the gun.

Stane laughs, “You don’t have the guts, you fool!”

Tony swallows, and he feels Bruce still behind him, because they both know he would never kill a person, not even for revenge. Bruce sees the man behind Stane, right before he hides behind the big pile of snow. Tall, blond and his shirt is also covered in blood, who’s blood, he can’t really think of anyone since Stane admitted to kill one of the other two men that were in the room with them. The blond has a rifle too, and he looks like he doesn’t know who to shoot, but by the way he is holding the rifle, Bruce knows he definitely know _how_ to shoot.

“So we are in another dimension” Bruce says, “How- how is that possible?”

Stane, who believes he has the upper hand, shrugs, “It’s all in that suitcase of yours, Dr. Banner” he looks pointedly at the silver case and Bruce tightens his grip, “Tony, give me the case and the device” 

Tony shakes his head, “I can’t do that, Stane”

“Come on, Tony, I am not stupid enough to kill you, I wouldn’t be able to understand anything in those notes”

“How do you know about the notes?” Tony asks, “Did my father told you about that before you killed him?”

Stane shakes his head, putting the rifle down, “He showed it to me”

Bruce frowns, “Howard told you-“

“He told me everything about him and Yinsen’s project” He answers, “He wanted me to be part of this, Tony, he wanted me to be with you when-“

“Why did you killed him?” Bruce interrupts when he sees Tony lowering the gun, “Why did you killed Howard if he wanted you to have this?”

“You know what Tony?” Stane says, “I just need one scientist in my new team”

Before he even have the time to shoot, Bruce throws himself over Tony and two shots are heard. Tony raises his head and checks himself for any injury, he then sees Bruce next to him, the suitcase in his chest had taken the bullet Stane shot.

“That was close” Bruce says, Tony throws the gun in his hand and hugs the man.

“Holy shit, Bruce” Tony says, pulling back for a second before he hugs him again, “You almost took a bullet for me! _What the fuck is wrong with you_?!” He yells, “Who the fuck in his right mind would do that?”

Bruce chuckles softly, standing up with Tony’s help, “You are my friend, Tony”

“That was really brave” 

They both turn to see a blond man standing behind them, with a rifle in his arm. Tony looks for the gun but Bruce stops him. 

“He shot Stane”

Tony looks at Obadiah Stane, his left shoulder is bleeding and he is glaring at Tony. The blond kicks the rifle away from his reach and makes him stand up. He puts the rifle down, in some kind of prove that he came in peace, he looks at the Stane with a pained expression and Tony nods at him as a thank you.

“I’m Steve” the man says, “Steve Rogers”

Tony shakes his hand, “Tony" 

“Bruce Banner” Bruce says, “Thank you” 

Steve nods.

He then seem to remember something because he walks really fast behind the snow boulder he had hidden behind off and reaches for something. Someone, actually, a man, and as crazy as it looked for both Bruce and Tony, he seemed to have his arm split open, the sutures barely keeping the arm from fall apart.

“My friend Bucky was in an accident”

“Fuck” Tony whispers before he can control himself.

“And as much as I would like to hear an explanation to all of this, I really need to get him a hospital”

“Oh, my god” Bruce rushes to his side, “What happened?”

Steve looks at the man, “We work at a paper factory and-“

Bruce nods when he notices he can’t continue, “You stopped the bleeding, but we need to get it antibiotics before it gets infected" 

“He is not going to be able to keep the arm” Tony adds, Steve glares at him, “Look at it, his fingers are-“

“Tony” Bruce says, “Get us back to New York”

Tony nods and grabs the suitcase. He opens the leather book and starts reading, looking at the scene developing next to him for a few seconds. Next to him, Obadiah still glares at him, but since Steve tied him up with his belt he couldn’t move. Tony wants to say something, but he is afraid it would make him look weak. 

“My… Car is a few meters from here, I have a first aid kit” Steve says.

“Get it” Bruce says, “I’ll take care of him” He says while he takes his jacket off and covers the man. 

He waits until the blond is far enough to speak, “If he doesn’t bleed out, he will die of an infection, or hypothermia or-“

“Tony” Bruce presses his lips, “He saved our lives” he says, “the least we can do is try to help his friend”

Tony goes back to the book and pretends he didn’t hear him. He is in three pages when he feels cold metal against the back of his head. He made a quick countdown in his head. There were three Snipers, Obie, Bruce and him in that room, Obie killed two.

“Rumlow” Tony mutters.

“Stand up” Rumlow growls.

“I can get us out of here” He says, closing the book and standing slowly, “Just don’t shoot”

Rumlow doesn’t. Instead he stands them all in one line, including the blond who looks more worried about his dying friend’s life than his own. Rumlow left the rifle on next to the suitcase as he checked the content, Bruce looks at Tony because he knows the man is thinking about grabbing the gun and shakes his head. Too risky. Steve seems to agree because he too look at both of them.

“Help!” They hear a woman’s voice, “Please! Help!”

“What the-“ Rumlow looks at them and grabs the rifle, “Who else came with you?”

“I don’t know” Tony says, “I don’t even know these two guys” Steve presses his lips and Tony shrugs.

The woman finally comes to sight. Red hair, full lips and she’s wearing jeans, a white shirt and a pair of boots that didn’t look warm enough. She is hugging herself and shaking. Rumlow looks hesitant at first but he walks towards her with the rifle in his hand. Bruce looks at Tony and then at Steve. Steve’s friend looks lucid, but barely there and Tony feels a stab of guilt for what he said.

The redhead waits until the man is close enough to take the rifle from him with a swift move and hit him in the face with it, Tony looks shocked and Bruce too, Steve on the other hand looks impressed. Rumlow tries to grab her and she moves, kicking him in the stomach. That gives Steve time to grab the rifle he had shot Stane with and point at them.

“Let her go!” Steve yells, moving towards them.

The redhead looks at him relieved, struggling to move, since the man had her arms against her back and he was covering her mouth. Steve moves the rifle slightly down and shoots him in the knee. Rumlow groans in pain but doesn’t let her go, when another man comes behind them and kicks the back of his wounded leg, making him release the woman. She kicks his face and leaves him unconscious.

“I thought you had it under control” He says and the woman, covering her with a coat.

The redhead smiles softly, “Well, I wasn’t exactly counting on him having a rifle” she retors, “Or that guy knowing how to shoot”

Steve looks back at Bucky, who is being treated by Bruce, while Tony reads the notebook. He walks towards them, still pointing the rifle. The woman had a split lip, but the blood was dry so it hadn’t been the result of the recent struggle, he then looks a the man with her.

“Did he hit you?” He asks.

The woman manages to chuckle, “He hit who did this to me, actually” she answers, “I’m Natasha Romanoff, this is Clint…” 

“Barton, Clint Barton”

Steve nods, “Steve Rogers”

“At easy soldier” Clint says, “Hey, my hearing aid is working again!” he exclaims touching his ears.

“You wear hearing aids?” Natasha asks, “You are deaf?”

“Partially” Clint nods.

Steve tilts his head confused, “You don’t know eachother”

Natasha shakes his head, “It’s a long story”

“The thing is we don’t know how the hell did we get here” Clint says, “Also, is fucking freezing”

Steve nods, “Come with me”

 

* * *

 

Steve mentions the cave he had found while on the way to the ambulance and they follow him there. Despite the protests of Natasha and Tony, they took Obadiah and Rumlow with them, Bruce even cleaned the gunshot wound in the man’s leg. Tony waits until Steve lights a fire and they are all warm to explain what happened.

“The only explanation for why were you all pulled into the… wormhole was because I accidentally augmented the power of the device, for it to be able to carry ten people” Bruce says, “And since you were all near to the house at that time… Well…”

Clint, Tony likes him, is the first one to speak, “Well, fuck” he says, “that is some Doctor Who kinda shit”

Tony really likes him.

“How do we get home?” Natasha asks. 

“That’s… the tricky part”

“You can’t control in which dimension you land yet” Obadiah says, he chuckles lowly, “That is the part little Tony here had to figure out” he adds in a mocking tone.

“Honestly, why is this guys still alive?” Natasha glares at him.

“Great question” Tony says, “Blondie, please, take it away” 

"We can't just killed someone be-"

"He tried to kills us first" Tony says.

"Yes, but we aren't like-"

"And he already killed two people"

"Tony, I already said I'm not killing him"

"Who died and made you captain?" Tony scowls

"Enough!" Bruce yells.

Tony clenches his jaw and Steve sighs heavily, his eyes moving towards his sleeping friend. Bruce had given him some antibiotics he had found in the ambulance, which Steve confessed he had stolen but didn’t give any further explanation. The painkillers’ effect were fading and Bucky looked like he was waking up.

“How much time have we been here?” Bruce asks.

“Let me check” Tony says, reaching for the suitcase, “Fuck, I left my phone”

“The pocket watch in the case” Bruce reminds Tony.

Tony pulls out the pocket watch and frowns, “That’s… Strange” he passes it to Bruce, “It’s working backwards”

“Like a timer?” Clint asks.

“My phone works” Natasha says pulling her phone out of her bag, she gives it to Tony.

Tony nods, “We’ve been here for exactly…. Three hours and forty five minutes”

“We need a hospital” Steve says, “We have two gun wounds and…”

Natasha looks at him for a few seconds and then at the long haired man sleeping next to him. She had noticed the fingers on his left hand were in a purple almost black color, she looks away when Steve catches him staring.

“He is going to lose the arm, Steve” Bruce says quietly, and somehow it doesn’t sound as bad as when Tony said it, maybe because of the sympathetic tone he uses, “We will get him a hospital, but…”

“I just want him alive” Steve whispers, “He is… all I have”

Stane snorts, “You better kiss your little boyfriend goodbye he-“

He stops when Tony hits him in the face with the rifle’s butt. Stane glares at him and Natasha smiles softly. Clint doesn’t bother in hiding his chuckle.

“We are getting out of here” Tony says, “But you two…” He looks at Rumlow and Stane.

“We can’t just leave them here” Steve intervienes, “This place is-“

“There is a town a few miles north” Tony says, “I saw the lights, they don’t even have to walk much”

Clint had always being a good liar and Tony is either a good liar himself or he is telling the truth. He doesn’t really care, the two men that are about to be left are not worth taking so he doesn’t even bother to check for the lights. Natasha does, just because if Steve asks later about them she can answer honestly, and when she see the faint lights a little far away than Tony beliefs they are, she nods to herself.

“I need to read how to get us safely to another dimension first, Yinsen’s notes are a little bit complicated to read” Tony mutters.

“You are not a scientist?” Clint asks.

“What’s a Yinsen?” Natasha frowns lightly.

Bruce sighs heavily, “Give the man some time”

“Sorry” Both of them say quietly.

Tony looks at Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton and Bucky Barnes then back at Bruce, who nods at him. He thinks of Pepper and how would she handle this situation, then he nods remembering Yinsen’s letter. It takes him a few minutes since Yinsen wrote exactly as he spoke, a lot of bullshit first, but then he got to the point. He is six pages in when he finally finds an explanation for the green light Bruce talked about.

 

* * *

 

Tony closes the notebook and then looks at the others. He takes the device and adjusts it to carry six people as Bruce locks the suitcase, they walk outside the cave and stand in line. Bucky, who is already fully awaken and a bit more aware of the situation looks at Steve, who is carrying most of his weight. Natasha holds Clint’s hand and nods at him, the man smiles at her softly and nods back. She holds Tony’s hand too and Tony looks at they interwined fingers for a few seconds and then she squeezes soflty, letting him now it is alright. Bruce then point infront of them and presses the button. This time there isn’t a blast. There isn’t a blue light explosion. Instead, a circular portal opens infront of them. 

“What if we don’t meet in the other side?” Steve asks, holding Bucky’s waist tighter. 

“We will” Bruce says, “Despite the fact that the place we land is random, we will always land there together”

“What happens when we do?” Natasha says.

“We will meet eachother as friends” Clint answers.

And for Tony that sounds perfect. That sounds like an adventure he wanted to be a part of. Bruce gives the device to Tony, he wants to be the first to go so Tony lets him. Clint goes next and Natasha follows. Steve walks afterwards and before he leaves, with his friend Bucky, Tony speaks for some reason.

“See you in the other side, Captain”

For the first time he sees Steve smile widely, “See you in the other side”

And he leaves.

Before Tony jumps himself he looks at Obadiah Stane, who had finally released himself from the belt. The old man looks at the portal in awe and then at Tony. Something inside of him doesn’t want to leave without saying something, so he says as loud and clear as he can.

“I forgive you, Obie” Tony says.

He closes his eyes and jumps into the wormhole. The portal. The unknown. And while he slides to another dimension, Tony feels like there is no heavy weight in his chest anymore.


	3. How To Track Time With a Pocket Watch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of all the things in the silver case, a broken pocket watch seems to be the most useless one.

Clint is glad the this time he doesn’t wake up laying in the snow. Instead, he is against warm grass and the sun shines high above him, he covers his eyes for a few seconds and then opens them up, squinting slightly while he looks around trying to locate himself in some place he recognises. Which he knows is improbable after what Dr. Banner said about them being in another dimension.

He stands up and dusts the back of his pants off, taking the coat he has off since the weather is warm enough, he ties it around his waist and pulls adjusts his hearing aids, thankful that they didn’t get missing. 

“Nat?” He says looking around, “Natasha? Dr. Banner?”

He can see a lake and trees. And because there are a few benches and a paved trail, like the ones in Central Park, he assumes they are in New York. Maybe some kind of parallel New York city. 

“Clint!” 

The redhead hugs his waist from behind and he turns to smile to her. She, just like him, is unharmed, her hair a little bit messy but she is fine. Behind her, Dr. Banner offers him a nod and he returns it. Tony is behind them, with the suitcase in one hand and the strange device in the other, he too seems relieved that they are all there.

“Wait” Clint frowns, “Where’s Cap?”

Bruce frowns, “Cap?" 

“The soldier, and the-“ He moves his left hand, trying to explain. 

“Hey!” 

The four of them turn to find the blond wet from head to toe, his friend isn’t though, Clint really needs to learn his name, but since he wasn’t able to hear it the first time considering all that was happening he couldn’t. Natasha hurries to help him and the man winces when she accidentally touches her left shoulder.

“He needs a hospital” Natasha says and the man looks at her like saying ‘No, shit’, Natasha presses her lips, “Tony?”

Before Tony gets to answer, three cops appear behind them pointing their guns at them. Surprised, they raise their hands - Clint does it, because well, is not the first time - except for Steve, who refuses to let go of Bucky.

“Raise your arms, woman!” One of the men say, “Raise-“ 

“We were in an accident!” Steve explains, “His arm- he needs a hospital”

“Leave the man in the ground and raise your hands!” He repeats, and Clint realises they are actually pointing at Natasha.

Bucky nods at Steve, “I’m fine, I’m fine”

Steve kisses the top of his head and helps him sit slowly on the grass. The cop, still not pointing at him, makes a call from his radio and when Steve hears the word ambulance he sighs relieved. The sense of calm is over as soon and they handcuff Natasha, throwing her to the ground and putting her hands against her back.

Clint barks, “Hey! Don’t you fucking-“

“What the hell, man!?” Tony says, “Why-“

“This Breeder is violating the curfew, sir” Another cop says calmly.

“Excuse me?!” Natasha struggles, “ _Breeder_?" 

“Sir, unless you can’t control your Breeder-“

“What the hell are you talking about?” Steve frowns, Bucky kicks his leg softly but he doesn’t pay attention, “She is with us-“ 

Bucky sighs heavily, standing up while leaning against the tree behind him, “We were on our way to repair her collar, officer”

They all look at him.

“That’s when I had the accident” Bucky looks at his arm, “We are sorry for the… inconvenience” 

To their surprise the police officer nods and takes the handcuffs off Natasha, “Who is responsible for her?”

“I am” Clint speaks, “I… She’s my…”

“Very well, sir” The officer nods, “Please, remember the code next time? I know with it being new and everything…” 

“It went over his head” Bucky says and raises an eyebrow to Clint.

“We will for sure” Clint nods.

Natasha stands and puts her coat on. She looks at Bucky, still leaning against the tree and looking at her. 

“How did-“

He gives her the wrinkled piece of paper he found on the ground when Steve sat him there. She takes it and reads it slowly. The ambulance arrives before she can look back at him, and thank him for thinking about something that fast. Clint offers her purse back at her and she smiles softly at him, he is about to hug her when she stops him.

“You better read this first” She says between her teeth, looking at the paramedic that just stepped down of the ambulance with the corner of her eye.

Clint takes the piece of paper as they all are taken to another car, that will get them to the hospital. Steve is the only one who gets to ride in the ambulance with Barnes. Bruce is reading the paper next to him, Tony keeps his eyes on the rode.

“What the…” Clint mutters.

**WELCOME TO NEW NEW YORK!**

  

NEW NEW YORK IS A PROUD SUPPORTER OF THE BREEDER CONTOL ACT

_As of June, 2016._

  

FEMALE HUMANS (BREEDERS) MUST FOLLOW THE THREE CODES:

  

  1. **BREEDERS MUST NEVER BE ALONE.**



Every female must be accompanied by their provider (or providers) at all time. The curfew set between ten a. m. and three p. m. must be obeyed.

 

  1. **BREEDERS MUST WEAR THEIR COLLARS AT ALL TIME.**



Every owned female must wear their identifying collars. Without one, they will be taken to the rehabilitation center and the owner shall be notified as soon as possible.

 

  1. **BREEDERS MUST OBEY THEIR PROVIDERS.**



If by any means, the breeder is considered uncontrollable, she will be put down immediately. If that is the case, the provider will be rewarded with another breeder immediately if available.

 

_IN CASE OF VIOLATION OF THE CODE, DEATH PENALTY ENSUE._

Clint finishes reading and Bruce takes the paper from him. Tony is still looking outside of the window, in complete awe. New New York is indeed… New. The buildings are as high as the Burj Khalifa, some twice as big and the cars, the ones Tony could see, were self driven and the streets were clean. He frowns when he sees in the center of the city a big statue of some man called Alexander Pierce. He sees loudspeakers in every single corner they turn in, like the ones they had back when the countries were at war, the ones that announced when bombs would fall. And yes, he was a history geek, so he knew that.

“Tony” Bruce elbows him and passes him a piece of paper.

“What’s this?” He asks, reading it, “Who the hell approved this?” Tony asks.

“Who cares, we need to leave asap” Natasha mutters.

 

* * *

 

As soon as they arrived to the hospital they were taken to the floor where they found Steve passing back and forward. Neither of them knew what to tell him or what to do, it was Bruce who asked him about what the doctors were saying. Clint, Natasha and Tony sat in the waiting room in silence, Clint because he knew if he spoke with Natasha normally people would stare and Tony because he didn’t exactly know how or what to talk about with new people.

“So…” Tony says after a few minutes in silence, both of them look at him, “Are you two… How long have you been together?”

Natasha suppresses a smile, “What time is it?” 

Tony pulls out the pocket watch and looks at it, “9:15 a. m.”

Clint hums, “Well, I would say about eight hours?” He asks Natasha, who nods. 

They both look at Tony and by the way there are small smile on their faces he can tell they are messing with him. Natasha is about to talk when two men pass next to them and eyed her, so she elbows Clint on the sly and lets him talk. 

“I met her the night… Was that yesterday? Anyways, she was attacked by these punks and I saved-“

“Helped” Natasha cuts in. 

Clint nods, “I helped her” he says, “Then I kinda tried to… steal from her and she caught me” Tony’s eyebrows shoot up, “We were about to part ways but this blue light… I thought it was an explosion or something” 

“Yeah, like atomic bombs, nuclear war and all that” Natasha murmurs. 

“And here you are” Tony finishes for them. 

Clint shrugs, “Here we are”

Tony feels a stab of guilt for the way two innocent people were dragged into the whole mess. The worst part was that taking them back home won’t be as easy as he originally though, Natasha clears her throat softly and he looks at her, she offers him a small shrug and whispers.

“I’m sure the genius Tony Stark will think of something”

It was the first time one of them mentioned his last name. Heck, he hadn’t even introduce himself to them, only Bruce had told them his complete name. Clint’s voice pulls him out of his thoughts.

“Did you notice there aren’t nurses here?” He whispers, “I mean, like, women nurses… Not a single woman works here” 

Tony looks around and realises is true. Then he remembers the whole “Breeder act” thing. In this dimension, women are seen as property, treated as nothing more than pets or well, breeders. Natasha raises an eyebrow at him and he sighs, running a hand through his hair. She was right, they needed to get out of there as soon as possible. 

“Steve” Clint stands.

Tony looks up and sees the blond walking towards them. He is wearing dried clothes this time, and sneakers that looked far more comfortable than the heavy working boots he had been wearing before. Bruce is behind him, and he gives a look at Tony, like telling him to keep his mouth close. 

“He has to get the arm amputated” Steve says.

“I’m so sorry, Steve” Bruce says.

Steve sits next to Natasha, “I told them that I had to get the money at the bank and I would come back for him”

Clint chuckles and they all look at him, “Where the hell are you going to-“ 

“We get him out” Tony says and he can hear Bruce face palm.

“You mean like… kidnap him?” Steve asks.

He nods, “Why not?”

“He’s right” Clint says, “We have that thing” he looks at the suitcase, “We could just teleport somewhere else”

Tony turns to the silver case and pulls out the notebook and the remote. They all gather around him as he reads under his breath. According to the journal, the device would open a portal for a small amount of time, enough to let the user jump into it. Once in the dimension the control would enter into a “resting more” or “stand by” mode, a period of time in which it would charge, after that, another portal to a different dimension can be opened.

“So how long does the… portal opens for?” Bruce asks.

“Two minutes approximately” Tony licks his lips, “We just open the portal in Barnes room and cross, just two minutes, that’s it” continues reading, “Bruce, you said the light had been blue the first time you used it” Bruce nods, “Well… When I used it the last time it was yellow. 

“So?” 

Tony raises and finger and reads further.

“Wait, it says there is a stand by time or something?” Clint asks, “How long do we wait for the… remote thing to charge?”

Tony closes the notebook and sighs heavily, “Well, I kinda fucked up by using it too soon”

Steve frowns, “H- how did you-" 

“The remote needs time to charge and I used it too soon” Tony repeats, “It has to charge completely or we may… It says here we could ‘splice’” Bruce frowns, “We could appear here without a limb” 

“Little too late for that” Clint mutters and Steve presses his lips, “So how long do we wait to use it without endangering out limbs?”

“That’s the other thing” Tony looks at his hands, “About… Seventy two hours”

“Seventy- Tony!” Clint exclaims 

Natasha groans, “That’s three fucking days!”

“Can you charge it with a car battery or something?” Clint asks. 

“It’s too dangerous, we could damage the remote” Bruce says, “Specially since we don’t know how much energy it needs”

Clint shakes his head, “Three days…“

“We are trapped here for three days” Steve repeats.

“I know!” Tony exhales, “ And I’m sorry, alright?!” He says, “I didn’t plan all this, I didn’t mean for any of this to happen!”

He kicks one of the chairs and walks towards the window. He starts feeling his hands sweaty, cold sweat running down his back, and fuck because he hadn’t eaten anything in almost ten hours, he misses Pepper for some reason and oh yeah, everyone looks pretty pissed with him for something he didn’t even do this time.

“Tony” Steve is next to him, a few feet aways but close enough for him to hear him, “Look, we know… We know you didn’t mean for any of this to happen” he says, “We aren’t blaming you”

“I can fix this” Tony says quietly, “I just… I need time”

Clint, Natasha and Bruce stand next to them. Looking outside the window for a few seconds in silence. Clint pats his shoulder, offering him a silent apology, and Tony knows it because he gives those kind too. 

“Well, three days is enough to make a better plan” Natasha says. 

Steve looks at her, “Are you okay with… all this?”

She shrugs, “I’ve had men trying to treat me like nothing my whole life” Clint glances at her, “A few more days won’t kill me”

Steve frowns, “What-“

“Mr. Rogers?”

Steve turns to find a nurse looking at him. He nods and the man walks towards them, he throws a glance to Natasha, who looks away immediately and Clint walks her towards the chairs.

“Mr. Barnes is already out of surgery”

Bruce frowns. Normally a surgery like that would last at least five hours, but it hadn’t even passed three, then again, they seemed to be in some kind of dimension where they are more civilised in things. Well, he looks at Natasha, certain things. Clint stands and tells Natasha something, then he leaves, Bruce frowns but doesn’t say anything. The nurse finishes explaining about the procedure they performed on Bucky, saying that they weren’t able to reattached arm but there was no infection since the initial cut had been clean. 

“He will be fine, then?” Steve asks and the nurse nods.

“Mr. Nurse” Tony says making Clint snort, Steve and Bruce exchange looks, “Mr. Rogers happened to be from… the other side of the pond if you know what I mean” Steve frowns at him, “And it will take a few days for the money to be here”

The nurse nods, “I understand, sir, it won’t be a problem” Steve sighs relieved, “Mr. Barnes will have to stay here for recovery at least two days”

Tony tenses, “Oh”

Bruce nods, “Thank you” he tells the nurse and the man leaves. 

“Well, shit” Tony licks his lips. 

“It’s alright” Bruce says, “We couldn’t just take him with us, is better if he stays here for now”

“While we do what?” Steve says, “I’m not leaving-“ 

“We need to get food first, supplies, clothes” Bruce puts a hand in his shoulder, “If we are doing… whatever we are doing, we need to be ready for when we leave”

Steve sighs but nods, “We come back tomorrow”

Bruce nods. 

“So where do we start?“ Tony asks.

“We start by trying to not call attention to ourselves” Bruce says.

That’s when Clint appears behind them. The three men stare at him between confusion and shock since he is wearing scrubs, a lab coat over it and around his neck he has a stethoscope. He grins widely and wiggles his eyebrows, Natasha chuckles behind them and Clint winks at her.

“What the hell?!” Bruce groans.

“I got us cash” Clint says showing them a bag with the hospital’s name on it. 

“You stole that?” Steve asks.

“At least it wasn’t an ambulance” Clint retorts, winking at him.

Tony grins, “I like this guy”

“We need to get out of here” Natasha appears behind them, “I’m starving” 

They all start walking, slowly so they don’t look suspicious since Clint stole and entire Doctor uniform and money from… Somewhere. Tony presses the button from the elevator and they all get in as soon as the doors open.

“What about Bucky?” Clint asks. 

“He will stay here” Steve explains, “We’ll come for him tomorrow” 

Clint nods.

Getting a cab is not as hard as they thought and, just like Tony imagined, they are self driven. Inside the bag Clint stole there is about eight wallets, all of them with a generous quantity of cash in them, and Bruce starts counting the money as they arrived to some hotel Steve had said one of the nurses mentioned. Tony is submerged in the journal when Natasha yawns, he notices she had put a cap on, hiding her hair underneath it and had put on a baggy sweatshirt that Clint had offered her in an effort to disguise her as a man.

“We have one thousand two hundred seventy five dollars and eighty two cents” Bruce says.

“I could have done better” Clint mutters and Steve elbows him.

 

* * *

 

The hotel they arrived to is fancy but not excessively. Bruce get the room while the others wait in silence, trying not to call any attention to them. Clint manages to get two bags without anyone noticing – to Steve’s despair and Tony’s amusement – before they are taken to their room. No one looks at Natasha in all that time and she looks more than relief of that.

“I ordered food” Bruce tells Steve as soon as he’s out of the bathroom.

The blond nods and lets Bruce go into the bathroom. Clint and Natasha are asleep on one of the queen beds, wearing the pyjamas that they found on the bags and Tony is sitting on the desk in the corner of the room, reading the journal he and Bruce talked about before. He wasn’t entirely sure about the whole story behind that silver case, but whatever it was, in their dimension it would have been the discovery of the century. He wonders if Tony and Bruce are some sort of mad scientists, or maybe the man they left behind was.

“This is amazing, Bruce” Tony says, “This pocket watch is-“ 

When he turns and realises is Steve in the room with him he stops talking. He looks down at Steve’s torso, and that’s when the man remembers he is wearing nothing but a towel around his hips. Tony looks away immediately.

“Sorry, I thought you were…” He trails off looking back at the watch.

“He is bathing” Steve explains, looking in the bags for clothes that fitted him, “So… what about that watch” 

Tony looks at him and then at the watch again, “It’s…” he pauses like looking for a way to explain him without using complicated words, “It’s somehow… synchronised with the remote” he says finally looking at him. 

Steve hums, putting a pair of sweatpants on and holding the towel at the same time, “Okay” 

“Um- and- um… It works backwards because is in fact a timer, like Clint said”

“What happens when it reaches the… end?” 

“A portal opens somewhere” Tony says, “And then once we go through it and land somewhere else-“

“The timer starts again” Steve finishes dressing and leans against the desk, looking down at Tony. 

“That’s why is wasn’t working when I first found it” Tony licks his lips and leans back in the chair, “All this… Yinsen and Howard had it all planned out… for me” he says.

Steve frowns and takes the watch carefully, examing it. When he opens it, he sees something engraved in the cover. 

“You are going on an adventure” Steve smiles, recognising the phrase from one of those books his friend Sam Wilson form the army talked about, “T. S” He whispers, “Tony Stark” he says in realisation, “You are Tony Stark”

Tony nods absently, “Sweet Einstein” He covers his face and groans, “Yinsen you crazy fuck” He chuckles softly against his hands and Steve tilts his head confused.

“You keep mentioning this Yinsen man” Steve says, leaving the pocket watch on the desk carefully.

Tony looks at him. Tired brown eyes connect with his blue ones and Steve can’t look away from some reason, but Tony does it first. He puts a hand on the silver case and stays quiet for a few seconds before he answers the question.

“Ho Yinsen and my father create this” He says, “And because of this… They were both murdered” 

Steve feels his heart stop for a millisecond, “Tony… I’m sorry, I didn’t-“

Tony shakes his head, “I will fix this… They will be remembered” He says, “Once we go back, I will make sure of it” He looks at Steve, “I will get us home, Steve”

There is something intense in the way Tony speaks to him, the way he looks at him and Steve finds himself nodding, because for some reason he trusts Tony when he says it this time. 

A knock on the door makes them both jump. Even Natasha and Clint wake up, Steve doesn’t miss the fact that Tony grabs the gun he has in the silver case and walks towards the door. Clint and Natasha stand from the bed and move away from the door.

“Room service” A female voice says from the other side.

Steve sighs relieved and Natasha chuckles, “Women doing god’s work in this dimension” She raises her eyebrow at Clint.

There are two carts of food. From pasta to burgers and even soup, Clint tips the woman and she blinks at him, then she sees Natasha behind them and leaves in a hurry. Tony enters the bathroom to take a shower and the rest gather around the small table in the middle of the room to eat. As they eat in silence Steve wonders about the other as he did about Tony. As far as he knew Bruce and Tony worked at Stark Industries together so they were friends before this, Clint and Natasha knew eachother but he didn’t exactly know the whole story. If what Tony said is true, they will get home sometime, but it might take a while so they might as well get along if they are sticking together.

“I met Bucky when we were eight” He starts, and they all look at him, “Our moms worked at a diner back in Brooklyn, that’s where we are both from”

“Iowa” Clint says.

Natasha says softly, “Russia”

Steve smiles back at them, “We did everything together, so when I joined the army he did too” Bruce looks impressed, “Somehow we managed to be deployed together and we befriended this man, Sam Wilson, he… he didn’t… he didn’t come back”

Natasha puts her hand on his knee and he looks at her, he then looks back at his Burger and stays quiet. There is more to that story, Bucky’s half, but he wants Bucky to tell it himself so he keeps quiet. Clint chuckles.

“I grew up in a farm”

Natasha laughs softly, “What?” 

“Like with horses and cows” Steve asks dumbly.

Clint chuckles, “I milked cows and everything” He then looks at his lap, “But when I was about nine when my parents died in a car crash and… We lost the farm” He says, “Me and my brother, Barney ran from the foster home they sent us too and ended up in a circus” He smiles.

“A circus?”

“I traded the horses for elephants” Clint nods, “Every kid’s dream, right?” Natasha smiles softly.

Steve smiles, “What happened to your brother?”

“He died” Clint says, “He liked drinking… And getting into fights” he shrugs, “Sometimes both so…” Natasha bites her bottom lip, “He got stabbed once and that was it” Steve nods, “I moved to the city a few years ago”

They continue eating in silence. Waiting for Bruce of Natasha to speak but neither of them do for a while, until Natasha finishes eating and sighs. 

“My father died not long after we arrived to America” She starts, “Then it was just me, my mother and my little sister… My mother died two years after my father, pneumonia, I took care of my sister then, she had cancer” Steve looks at her sympathetically, “I worked three Jobs every day to pay for her medical bills but it was never enough, I was twenty two when I started… dancing” she takes a sip from a bottle of water, “Anna died a few years after that and I’ve been on my own ever since, I considered getting another job but… Being a stripper pays well”

Steve looks at her and Clint chokes on his drink. Natasha smirks and takes another sip form her water. She shrugs, she doesn’t really mind saying she was a stripper if it was the truth and if they were going to look down on her for it, she wasn’t going to care. 

“Who taught you how to fight?” Steve asks, “That man-“

“Rumlow” Bruce says, “He was army trained”

Natasha shrugs, “Self defense comes handy in my line of work”

Bruce nods.

“Where did you meet Tony Stark?” Natasha asks him.

“I work with him” Bruce says, “For over a year”

“Eighteen months to be exact, Brucie” Tony appears from the bathroom already dressed.

He sits next to Clint and takes a slice of pizza from one of the plates. By the way he eats it fast, Steve can tell he was very hungry, the scientist looks at him and winks, Steve looks away and Natasha chuckles ruffling the man’s dark hair.

“Did I missed the stories of your lives?” Tony says.

“Steve was in the army, Clint grew up in the circus and I’m a stripper” Natasha answers, “Was” 

Tony nods softly, “Awesome”

“To be honest” Natasha says, “This is by far the most interesting thing that has ever happened to me”

“Ah, silver lining” Tony chants and Natasha laughs nodding.

It’s already dark outside after they finish eating.

The fact that no one snores is a relief for Tony, who hadn’t slept well in about three days. Clint and Bruce share one of the beds, while Steve and Natasha share the other one, he gets the sofa bed which he finds surprisingly comfortable, but then again maybe is because of how tired he is.

“Hey, Stark” Clint says.

“What?”

“You didn’t tell us the story of your life”

Tony chuckles and turns to his stomach, “Google it?” 

“Come one, man” Clint murmurs.

“Do I have to tell you now?” Tony asks.

“It’d be nice to hear it form you” Natasha says quietly, “Steve move closer, you are like a human furnace” 

“Really?” Clint says, “I’m freeizing, can I join you guys?”

Steve chuckles, “Maybe other time”

“Oooh” Natasha chants, “Soldier boy here just made that an invitation, Clint”

“I’ll have that in mind” Clint snorts, “So… Stark?” he says, “Last thing I heard you stopped making guns and disappeared from the spotlight”

After a few seconds of silence, where Steve thinks Tony had fallen asleep, the man speaks. Bruce, next to them, looks at the blond and then at the ceiling.

“I was in an accident” Tony says, “About four years ago”

“Did you die?” Clint asks dumbly, “Ouch” he says when Natasha throws him a pillow, “I meant to say, did you-“

Tony chuckles, “It felt like I did” He answers, “Stark Industries had a… weapon demonstration in Afghanistan”

“That was back when you still made weapons” Natasha says, “They called you the merchant of death”

“Yeah” Tony swallows, “I was kidnapped… Me and Yinsen” he continues, “A missile blew up right next to us, I covered him… like out of instinct” Steve frowns at the way Tony says it like it had been weird to want to protect someone, “We were in a cave for months… They tried forcing me into making a missile for them”

“How did you escaped” 

“Yinsen built a bomb” Tony says, “It made a hole in the cave and we were able to escape”

Clint is about to say something when Steve speaks, “I think we should go to sleep” he says, “We have to gather supplies tomorrow”

“Yeah, okay” Clint mutters, “Nighty nighty”

Natasha chuckles softly. Despite the fact that Steve thought she was actually kidding, she moves closer to him and falls asleep against his back. It takes a few minutes for him to fall asleep, thinking about how Bucky is, about everything that had happened to them, all the things they had been through. He is about to fall asleep when he hears Tony move. The man turns in his back and Steve sees a faint blue light reflect on the ceiling, he doesn’t bother to look where the light is coming from as he drifts into a deep sleep.

 

* * *

 

Tony feels his eyes are closed for about three or four hours when a voice wakes him up, he opens his eyes but can’t really see anything, all he can do is feel the cold steel against his temple.

Well, shit. 

He is about to reach for the gun he kept under the pillow when a female voice speaks lowly against his ear.

“Don’t even think about it”

And everything goes dark.

 

* * *

 

The first thing he knows as soon as he gains consciousness is that he is tied up. Hands against his back, his back against some kind of metal pole. Tony is next to him, and so is Bruce, Clint is on the other side of the room with his hands tied above his head and a bruise on his face that tells him that he did get to struggle against their captors. Tony wakes and tries to move. 

“No, no, no” He says, “What the-“ 

He feels like he is back in that cave in Afghanistan. His chest feeling heavy all of sudden, making it hard to breathe, he curses because he can feel the panic attack coming.

“Calm down, Tony” He hears Bruce, “We are all here" 

“Where’s Natasha?” Steve panics, “Where-“ 

“They took her” Clint says, “I tried to stop them but they took her”

“Who took her?”

Clint sighs, “The man with the eyepatch”

 _Well fuck_ , Tony thinks, that’s not something you hear everyday. 


	4. How To Get Directions Using a Compass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha makes new friends, there's a pirate and the group end up getting some help.

They all look at her as if she’s saying some kind of crazy story and well, being a dimension traveller sounds crazy so she can’t blame them. The black haired woman, who was the one who took the food to their hotel room, seems to be their leader, because she tells them something and they all leave the room. Natasha sits straight in the chair she is sitting on and looks at the woman. 

“And this men… They are your friends?” She asks.

Natasha nods, “So, please, just let them go they-“

“One of my girls saw you in the park” She continues, pacing around the room, “She says they defended you”

“Yes”

She chuckles softly, almost sadly, “Then it must be true you are not from around here”

Natasha frowns, “What happened here?” she asks “I mean, where I come from things aren’t… like this” 

The woman shrugs, “Things changes from one day to another” she admits, “First it was small, we weren’t aloud to get certain jobs, then they started hunting us down like animals”

“But?”

“There are people fighting” The woman says, “Men and woman… Like us”

“So you didn’t bring them here to kill them” Natasha says, “Why kidnap us then?” 

“I understand you have a scientist”

Natasha nods, “Two, actually”

“We would like their help with something”

“If… If they are safe… We might be able to help” Natasha says, “But we need something from you too” The woman raises an eyebrow, “there is a man in the hospital”

“And?" 

“We need to get him out” 

Out of the shadows a tall black man with an eyepatch appears, he smiles at her and Maria nods, “It will be our pleasure”

 

* * *

 

“So this chick breaks into out hotel room, while we are sleeping! Kidnap us! And then you expect us to be cool about it?!” Clint yells. 

“Also, who’s the pirate?” Tony agrees.

The black haired woman, who’s name is actually Maria Hill, sighs heavily and pinches the bridge of her nose. She throws a glance to Steve and then looks at Natasha, who is trying to calm Clint down. Steve stands and they all look at him, his fists clenched hard as he sighs heavily, Natasha had explained that they would help them get Bucky out of the hospital in exchange of their help stealing something from some laboratory that only Bruce and Tony could know about. The man with an eyepatch, Nick Fury, stands form the chair he had been sitting at listening to the argument in silence.

“Look” Maria says, “If you don’t want to help, you can leave now”

“Fine!” Clint says.

Steve shakes his head, “Clint, I know your are pissed” He says, “But this people need our help” 

Clint seems to calm down to that, and then he looks at Natasha, who nods at him softly. Steve knows he isn’t just mad because they tied them up, but because he tried to defend Natasha from them and he couldn’t, Steve himself knows the feeling.

“Whatever it is, I’m in” Tony says after a few seconds, “We might as well do something while we wait for the portal to open” he says.

The three of them look at Tony and the man scratches his beard nervously. Nick Fury chuckles and Maria smiles at the Tony and he winks at her, Steve tenses for some reason and then Bruce lets out some breath. Clint groans and Natasha hugs his arm.

“Alright, alright” Clint nods, “We might as well do some good while we are at it… or whatever" 

Natasha chuckles, “Cap?”

Steve looks up at her, “Agree”

“Very, well” Bruce says, “What exactly are we doing?”

 

* * *

 

 

Fury shows them the underground facilities they are at. Some kind of bunker he says was built decades ago by the organisation he and Maria work for. They see rooms where there are a few other women and men working on computers, some are just talking and others cleaning some guns. Fury tells them about some bio-weapon that the goverment had been building for the past years, a virus that will break down the XX chromosome until it disappears completely. Since is not Tony’s area he lets Bruce talk to the woman. 

“We have retrieved some data” Maria gives Bruce a yellow folder, that the man opens and starts reading

Steve speaks first, “So, this virus, are you going to steal it or…”

“We want to destroy it, Captain” Fury says, and Steve chuckles because of the nickname, “To do that, we needed one of your scientist friend to explain to us what it was since… Our source was killed”

Clint asks, “Why not steal it yourselves?” he looks outside the room they are in and sees the weaponry.

Fury sits on the nearest chair, and Maria looks at him “The whole concept of the virus started as a government experiment to eliminate the elder population” he explains.

“The government is behind this?” Steve asks.

“It’s always the suits, Steve” Clint says. 

Maria chuckles softly and Fury continues, “When we found out, we tried steal the virus” he says, “But as soon as the government found out, they released a more agressive version of it” Clint frowns, “Millions of people died” 

“Let me guess, the government ‘came up’ with a miracle cure” Natasha says and Fury nods.

“That was about eight years ago” Maria says, “The creator of the cure was Alexander Pierce” She looks at Steve, “Now he’s the president”

“Well, shit” Clint mutters.

“Did he by any chance got himself a nice big statue in the middle of New York?” Tony asks, Maria nods, “Give me ten minutes and I can blow that shit up”

Maria chuckles and continues, “The remaining members of SHIELD dug up a little more about him only to discover he is part of a very old Organization who’s objective is global domination”

“Naturally” Tony says. 

“HYDRA” Maria says, “They… were everywhere, from members of the governments, to dynasties, to the fucking UN” 

“Why attack only women?” Natasha says, “Why make people think of us as caddle, why create a virus to-“

“The XX chromosome is easier to break down” Bruce enters the room, “Also the XY chromosome is easily manipulable… Clonable”

“They are making clones?” Clint gasps, “Okay, you gotta admit that’s damn cool”

Maria chuckles, “Also another way to prevent humans form existing once the ‘breeders’ are all gone”

“All this was planned by HYDRA?” Tony asks.

“Yes” Fury nods, “Who knows how long have they been planning”

“How did you two become involved in all of this?” Steve asks. 

“My husband, Phil Coulson, worked in SHIELD long before I joined” Maria answers, “He died when the first wave of the virus was released” she looks away.

Tony looks at Nick Fury. 

“I was the director of SHIELD” Nick Fury said, and they all looked at him, “Until I discovered they were working with HYDRA” 

“The people who were against HYDRA were either killed or force to hide” Maria puts a hand on Fury’s shoulder, “With the ones who survived and were still willing to fight we rebuilt SHIELD from the ashes” 

“After we get you the virus” Bruce says, “The data to replicate it and make a cure out of it, what are you doing?”

“We have been preparing for this for years, Dr. Banner” Fury says, “The people you see outside of this room are barely a small fraction of what SHIELD really is”

“So taking the virus is just-“ 

“The second part of the plan” Maria nods, “In case they release it anyways” 

Clint breaths out, “I feel better now that we now our job is so not important”

Tony chuckles.

“What I was saying was… You are not using the virus against them, right?” Bruce asks. 

Maria nods, “You can be sure that we won’t” she answers, “We wouldn’t be any better than HYDRA” bruce nods.

“HYDRA we can take down easily” Fury sighs, “But a virus… Something you can’t see, is just…” 

“We understand” Tony nods.

“Let’s get to work then” Clint claps his hands.

 

* * *

 

Tony taps his fingers against the desk as he continues reading Yinsen’s notebook. He still can’t figure a way to know where the portal will open and he hadn’t have time to tell Bruce about it, nor anyone else, he doesn’t want them to panic, he doesn’t want them to know that right now he knows as much as they know about their situation. Steve sits next to him all of sudden, and leaves a plate with a sandwich in the table. When Tony looks at him he smiles softly and it makes Tony wonder how does he manages to looks so carefree despite everything. Then he remembers that he is probably excite about being reunited with his boyfriend.

“You should eat something” Steve says. 

Tony closes the notebook and grabs the sandwhich, “Thanks, Cap” he asks taking a bite.

“Why do you call me that?” Steve asks.

Tony chuckles, “You were in the army and you are kind of bossy”

Steve nods, “Bruce explained us about your father and… Stane”

“Oh” Tony looks at his hands, “Yeah, well…”

“I’m sorry”

He shrugs, “What happened happened, Steve, there is nothing to be sorry about" 

Steve then looks at the objects in the desk, Tony had put all the contents in the silver case out. He takes the picture of Tony’s parents with Yinsen, his mother was a beautiful woman, but Tony takes after his father, the brown eyes, the smile, even thought he hadn’t seen Tony smile much. He then grabs the red moleskine, but flipping to the pages he realises they are all blank. 

“Those are for drawing I think” Tony says, “I found a few drawings on the leather notebook, maybe Yinsen kept that just in case” 

Steve nods, he grabs a pencil from the desk Maria lend to Tony and opens the moleskin, “May I?” he asks.

“Go ahead”

He smiles and starts drawing.

Tony continues eating while Steve doodles in the moleskine. He heard about Steve being in the army, where he met Bucky, and he wants to ask more about him for some reason, for example how does an army man ends up working at a Paper Factory with shitty safety parameters.

“So…” Tony starts, scratching his jaw.

Steve looks at him with amusement, “So?” 

“How did you and…”

“Bucky” Steve says, “His name’s James but he prefers Bucky” 

“Bucky” Tony nods, “How did you two end up together?”

“We met when we were kids” Steve answers, his eyes still in the moleskin. 

“I mean… together, together”

Steve stares at him for a few seconds before he laughs, not in a cruel manner, but in a way that lets Tony knows he finds the question amusing for some reason. 

“Bucky and I aren’t- we aren’t a couple” He says, his laugh dying down, “We are like brothers” 

“Oh” Tony nods.

Steve shrugs, “We get that a lot though” he adds, “I mean- I am… But Bucky… He doesn’t swing that way”

Tony’s eyebrows shoot up, but before he can say anything Steve turns the page he had been doodling on him. It’s a drawing of Tony eating the sandwich, and is the furthest thing from a simple doodle. 

“Whoa” Tony grabs the moleskin, “You are good” he says, “Like _really_ good”

Steve smiles, “Thanks”

“How did you- I mean, is really good”

“I was in art school for two years before I joined the army”

Tony nods, looking back at the page still impressed. Steve grabs the pocket watch from the desk and sees the timer half way through to reaching the number 12. Tony takes it from him, his fingers brushing against his’ for a fraction of second and then, out of curiosity, he reaches for the compass. 

“What is this for?” He asks. 

“Well, is a compass” Tony answers looking at the pocket watch, “It points north”

Steve presses his lips, “I know that” he retorts, looking back at the compass, “Well, this one is broken”

Tony frowns, “What?” he takes it from Steve, “What did you do?”

The blond rolls his eyes, “I didn’t do anything, it’s just-“ 

“It points…” Tony turns in his chair, “That way” 

“So it is broken” Steve says.

Tony’s eyes go wide and then he leaves the compass in the desk, opening the journal again. He flips through a few pages and stops in one, reading as fast as he can. 

“Yes!” He exclaims, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

Steve frowns, “Are you alright?”

“More than alright, my dear Watson”

Tony gives Steve the journal and then grabs the compass. From one of the cabinets of the desk he pulls out a map and a ruler, taking the pencil from Steve’s hands he starts making some lines on the map. All this time Steve is looking at him with a confused expression in his face. He looks down at the journal and sees a drawing of the compass next to a few notes about it. Something about it pointing at electromagnetic fields near it. Natasha enters the room then, and raises her eyebrow at both men. 

“What are you boys doing?”

“Steve just discovered how to know exactly where the portal is opening” Tony says. 

“He did?” Natasha shoots an impressed look at Steve. 

Steve frowns, “I did?”

Tony then takes the journal and puts everything but the map inside the silver case. Natasha leans against the chair Steve is sitting in and crosses her arms, getting ready for the explanation she knows Tony is about to give.

“Okay, so, these portals are made of energy” Tony says, “Like an above average magnetic field that creates some sort of signal even before it fully manifests”

“Can we track that signal?” Natasha asks.

“Yes” Tony gives her the compass, “With that”

Natasha looks at it, “It’s pointing that way” she says, “Kind of” she adds when it moves slightly to the left without her moving. 

“Right now is still tracking it” Tony says, “But as soon as the portal finishes… searching were to open, the compass will point to that direction”

Steve blinks, “That’s… Genius” And he sounds genuinely impressed.

“Yinsen and my father really did have it all figured out” Tony nods, “Well, almost all of it”

Natasha smiles, “This is enough for now” she gives him the compass, “More than enough”

“So tonight, after we have Bucky and we get the data to Maria” Steve licks his lips, “We will be ready to go?” 

“We have at least ten hours until the portal opens” Tony nods, “That gives us enough time”

 

* * *

 

The plan is easy. They go to Pierce Laboratories, right outside of town when is dark, Tony and Natasha distract the guards, Bruce and Clint get inside and connect a USB Maria gave them to the main computer, while she is in their escape car retrieving the data. Hunter and Daisy will will go to the hospital to get Bucky with Steve as their escape car, and they meet after they all finish to wait for the portal to open while Fury leads SHIELD into a battle.

As the day moves forward, Bruce grows more and more nervous about the whole plan. Even after Maria assured him that the Laboratories they were breaking into were completely empty at nights, except for the security guards and those were going to be handled by Tony and Natasha. He tries to distract himself reading Yinsen’s notes while Tony had disappeared saying he had some business in the city and Clint sleeps in the small cot in the corner of the room, Natasha watches some television while Steve left to the training room to blow off some steam. Since it seems to be more of Tony’s expertise he doesn’t get much reading before he leaves to the food court to eat something. There are a few people in there, and he is glad to see there are as much men as there are women, eating and chatting, looking happy that the revolution they had waited for will start that very night. All thanks to them.

He takes a tray and makes the small line to serve himself some food.

“You one of the sliders?”

Bruce turns to find a tall blonde woman raising an eyebrow at him.

“Excuse me?” He says, moving to pick his food.

 

“The sliders” She repeats, grabbing a plate with chicken in it, “The travellers” 

“Oh” Bruce nods, “Yeah” The woman smiles, “I’m Bruce Banner”

She shakes his hand, “The scientist” she says, “I’m Bobbi” 

Bobbi invites him to sit with her and a few of her friends. A young woman named Daisy and another man named Hunter, that looks like is her partner since she kisses his cheek. Daisy start asking him questions about his world and Bruce isn’t sure if to answer them all, but he does tell them about his work when Hunter asks. 

“Why did you called us Sliders?” Bruce asks.

Bobbi chuckles, “Your friend, the blond one, said that you jumped into a portal” she says, “He described it as one of those slides in waterparks”

Bruce chuckles, “Makes sense” Daisy nods, “Sliders”

“Seems like you liked the name, Doctor” Hunter grins.

 

* * *

 

Bucky wakes up feeling hungry. He hadn’t had anything to eat in almost… Two days? He can’t remember clearly anything of what happened. He does remember Steve and him in the ambulance, the redhead and Tony something talking about some travel, he also remembers the pain in his left arm. He tries to move it but can’t really feel it, and when he looks down he realises is because is gone.

“What the-” He sits on the bed.

He starts panicking, words unable to leave his mouth as he looks around frantically, when he is finally able to stand from the bed he woke up in, he falls to his knees not being able to stop his face from hitting the floor because of the lack of support. The white room, the clean sheets, the smell of antiseptic filling his nostrils, and the fact that he was alone made him feel dizzy. The doors open and three people enter the room, he sees familiar blue eyes looking at him before the man envolves him in a tight embrace. Steve cradles him as he forces him to sit on the floor, back against the bed, that’s when he realises he was having one of those panic attacks.

“He must be feeling dizzy still” Another man says, “I will get the doc-“

“That won’t be necessary” The redhead says.

The man presses his lips and leaves anyways.

“Buck, I’m here, Buck, I’m here” He whispers against his hair.

“Where is my-” Bucky says, “Steve, they took it- they-

“You are in a hospital” Steve answers, “They weren’t able to- It will be fine” 

Steve throws a glance at the woman, who closes the door behind her and crosses her arms, keeping her distance from the two men. Bucky shakes his head and looks at the redhead, who has been looking outside the door like waiting for someone to enter. Steve squeezes his shoulder softly and stands helping him afterwards. The three stay in silence, while the woman passes Steve a bag with clean clothes inside and a pair of runners that, Bucky assumes, are for him. He shakes his head, trying to remember her name and then she sighs, tapping her feet against the floor nervously.

“What is she doing here?” He asks in a whisper, as Steve sits him on the bed and moves to look for something on the bag.

“The name’s Natasha” the woman says.

He sighs, “I can dress-”

“Don’t-“ Steve stops him.

“Steve”

Steve looks at him with intensity and something else Bucky recognises as guilt. Steve feels guilty for what? The fact that he was stupid enough to be near the machine while it was on? For having to steal an ambulance for him? For his missing arm? 

“Steve, they are coming” Natasha says.

Steve nods, “Listen, Buck” Bucky looks at him, “ There is clothes in this bag for when we come for you tonight”

“At eleven” Natasha adds, “There is a gun too” she looks at the bag. 

“At eleven” Steve nods, “Just be ready, yeah?” 

Bucky frowns but nods still. 

“We will explain everything once we come get you” Steve says.

Before Bucky can say something the doors open and a doctor comes in followed by the man from before, who Bucky assumes is a nurse. Natasha looks away when the nurse raises an eyebrow looking at her up and down, and the doctor glares at her. That’s when Bucky remembers the way the police officer treated her and the weird law against “breeders”. Fucked up law that is, he thinks.

“Sir, visitation hours will be over soon” The doctor said, “And curfew will start in less than an hour” he adds looking pointedly at the redhead. 

Steve nods, kicking the bag against Bucky’s bed slowly, “Of course, we- I apologize” 

“Mr. Barnes will be served his food in a few minutes” The doctor adds smiling politely at Bucky, who glares at him the same way he glared at Natasha. 

“Oh, very well” Steve nods. 

The nurse then leaves.

“Will you join me outside so I can explain you better about Mr. Barnes recovery?” The doctor asks.

“Of course” Steve nods, “You, breeder, stay here… quiet and- and quiet” He points at Natasha, who looks down to hide her smile.

Both men leave and then the nurse comes back with a tray. The sight of food made Bucky’s mouth water and his stomach grumble in an almost embarrassing manner, he dismisses the nurse and waits until the doors are closed to attack the chicken that was left infront of him. The first bite is glorious, he thinks, as he rips a piece of chicken tight and takes it to his mouth. He hears a small chuckle and all of sudden remembers Natasha was in the room, he looks at her and raises an eyebrow in a questioning manner. 

“You should slow down, or else you will upset your stomach” She says.

Bucky looks at the plate and nods, “Hospital food’s good” he says, “despite what you see on TV”

Natasha chuckles and shrugs. Bucky looks at where his arm was suppose to be, without thinking it he tries to move what was left from it, whatever they didn’t cut and winces feeling a sting. He is grateful that he is still under the effects of painkillers or whatever they put him under. 

“Don’t try moving it” 

He turns to the redhead, “Moving _what_?”

“The… the stump”

Bucky looks away and nods, taking another piece of chicken to his mouth. He tries to not look like he’s struggling to cut it afterwards while he stabs it with the knife, in part because he hates looking helpless, in part because he does feel helpless and he hates it. Natasha walks towards him and takes the fork he had left forgotten.

“May I?” Bucky shrugs and lets her take the plastic knife, “Looks good”

There is something in Bucky’s blue eyes that make Natasha hate herself for feeling bad for the man. She slices the chicken as slowly as she can to see if she can stare long enough at him to figure out what was it, but Bucky just looks at the plate. She moves her neck, trying to scratch the itch the collar she had on was giving her.

“Why are you wearing that thing?” Bucky asks.

“We don’t need unwanted attention on us”, She stabs a piece of chicken with the fork and take it to Bucky’s mouth, “Steve will explain-“

He grunts and takes the fork of her hands. She raises her hands and gives a few steps back, rolling her eyes when Bucky doesn’t even thank her.

“I think we have some time” Bucky bites into the chicken and looks at the hall, where Steve is in a conversation with the doctor. 

Natasha moves closer again. So she tells him, vaguely, about some group of people who agreed to help them in exchange of Bruce stealing something from them. About some government conspiracy and about a revolution happening that very night. 

“That’s why you can’t come with us right now”

Bucky nods looking at his plate now empty.

“Are you alright?” Natasha asks, putting a hand on his right shoulder, he nods looking back at Steve. 

“I did get the easy part of the plan”

Natasha smiles at him and nods. 

 

* * *

 

Just like Maria said the building is only guarded by two guards. Clint taps his fingers against the dashboard as Bobbi finishes typing something into her computer that will deactivate the cameras for enough time for Bruce to enter and take what they need. The van their are in has enough space for all of them and they even keep some weapons, Bobbi said they were just in case. Bruce looks nervous, but Natasha and Tony seem calm.

“Hunter and Steve are arriving to the hospital” Bobbi announces.

“How long will this take?” Tony asks the blonde.

“Well, you have to distract this guy for seven minutes while Dr. Banner inserts this” She gives Bruce a USB, “In their main server, which is-" 

“Floor ten, Passcode 3864 for the door” Bruce says.

Bobbi smiles and nods, “After he inserts the device and I extract the information, it takes me about two minutes and then we have two more minutes to meet here and leave”

“So we have 11 minutes to do all this” Natasha says.

“We have to be out by 11:23” Clint purses his lips. 

“The portal opens in 34 minutes” Tony adds, “In the middle of central park” 

“I will get you there” Bobbi nods, “Hunter will get Cap and his friend to the same location”

“Easy peasy” Clint grins.

 

* * *

 

“You chose this night, this night of all! To come down with some- some- stomach bug?!” Hunter yells as he drags Daisy inside the hospital.

They are greeted by a doctor and a male nurses, yes Male Nurse because Hunter insists he gets confused if you only say nurse. One of them takes Daisy to a room while they ask Hunter a few questions. He plays his part, while Daisy knocks the nurse out and steals his clothes, hiding her hair under a cap she goes to the room where they are keeping Steve’s friend. She looks at her watch.

10:41 p. m.

Smiling she gets into the elevator while she hears Hunter yelling some non-sense about the price for staying one night “under observation”. She giggles, knowing well that they didn’t planned that and is all Hunter’s real opinion about the overpriced medical care. Before the doors close she winks at her friend at the same time she rips the fake Breeder collar off and Hunter gives a small nod.

The surgical mask covers her face enough for her to be able to wander the halls. She asks a doctor where room 142 is but he ignores her. Then she sees her, she is wearing a collar around her neck saying she’s property, she’s thinner than she used to and her fingers type away. Her eyes water as soon as she sees Daisy, and she panics looking around, relieved when she realises they are alone. Daisy walks towards her. 

“Nurse Kyle” She greets, looking pointedly at the name tag Daisy has.

“Simmons”

The other doctor enters the elevator and leaves.

“What are you doing here?!” Jemma asks, moving to hug her, “You are suppose to be-“

“I know!” Daisy chuckles, “I thought you were… I thought-“

“I was captured” Jemma says, “They told me I could either go to jail or work for the hospital, under their… supervision”

Daisy clenches her jaw, “Fitz is with us”

Jemma’ face lights up a the mention of her friend’s name, “Is he here right now? Where-“ 

“No, no, no” Daisy whispers, “He’s at the base, I came with Hunter” Jemma nods, Daisy considers it for a second, “I’m getting you out of here, now”

“Wait, didn’t you say you were looking for room 142?”

Daisy nods and tells her. Jemma starts typing something in the computer and then prints it, there isn’t anyone else in that floor but there are cameras and Daisy starts feeling nervous when she looks at the clock. They are all suppose to meet in Central park at 11:25 and the clocks reads 10:56. 

“We need to go now” Daisy says, pulling from her arm.

“I will meet you outside” Jemma says. 

“What? No, we-“ 

“Daisy, Daisy!” Simmons grabs her shoulders, “I will meet you, I promise”

“Okay” Daisy hugs her, “Meet you there”

They part ways and then Daisy runs towards the room. When she opens there is no one in the room, but the bed is not made so if they took Steve’s friend wasn’t long ago. She then feels cold steel against her temple, when she turns piercing blue eyes are glaring at her.

“Who are you?” He asks, “Where-“

“Steve is with us” Daisy says, and the man’s posture changes but he doesn’t retrieve the gun, “We are helping- he’s helping us, his friends-“

“Yeah, yeah, alright” He sighs, “Why should I believe you? You could be with… whoever HYDRA is”

Daisy chuckles, “Steve said you would be paranoid” she turns quickly and takes the gun from the man in a swift movement, pointing it at him. 

She can’t help to look surprised when she realises the man is missing one arm. Bucky, that’s his name she remembers, raises an eyebrow at her and clenches his jaw. 

“What? Never seen a cripple before?”

“I-“

He rolls his eyes, “Where’s Steve?”

“He is outside waiting” Daisy turns the gun to him, “Who gave you this?”

“It was in the bag” Bucky answers, taking said bag from under the bed and throwing it around his shoulder, the right one, “Let’s go”

Daisy jumps when she hears someone taking in the halls. When she peaks outside she sees a doctor talking to a male nurse, and they are both walking to their direction, the nurse has a tray of food for Bucky, she assumes. She feels Bucky behind her and closes the blinds before he can see what’s going on. 

“Shit” Daisy mutters, “There’s-“

“What’s the plan?” Bucky asks, when she doesn’t answer he sighs, “There isn’t a plan” it wasn’t a question.

“Well there wasn’t suppose to be anyone outside“

Bucky presses his lips and Daisy looks at him defiantly.

“I can take them” They both say at unison.

That’s when the nurse enters the room. Daisy reacts first, throwing both of them inside the room while Bucky closes the door. He considers it for a second, and looking at Daisy trying to fight the two men – The male nurse is bigger and he grabs her while she chokes the doctor with her tights – he opens the door and drags the cart with food inside. When he closes the door again, Daisy kicks the doctor, who falls to the floor unconscious, he raises his eyebrows impressed as he takes a bite from the turkey sandwich they had served him. The male nurse pushes Daisy against his chest and Bucky looks down at her. And when the man is about to attack them Bucky settles the sandwhich in the plate, moves Daisy out of the way and punches the man hard in the face, knocking him out immediately. 

“Cripple my ass” Daisy says, panting loudly.

Bucky finished his sandwich while Daisy tied down the two men with the TV cord and stuffed their mouth with a few gauzes. 

“Let’s go” She announces.

“Finally”

They get out of the room and into the elevator, before the door closes Bucky sees the guard going inside the room. They manage to get out of the hospital and a van pulls out infront of them, Bucky smiles when he sees Steve inside.

“Let’s go” Hunter says.

“Jemma!” Daisy puts a hand on his shoulder, seeing Jemma walking towards them.

Hunter’s eyes go wide and he turns on the engine, Jemma doesn’t realise she is being followed by two guards, behind them Daisy can see the male nurse Bucky punched yelling furiously. When he points at Jemma, Daisy yells at her.

“Jemma! Run!”

Jemma looks behind her and starts running, while Hunter starts moving the car. Steve extends his arm at Daisy’s friend and pulls her into the van, Daisy closes the door as the guards start shooting at them and Hunter accelerates. Jemma pants against Steve’s chest, and suddenly sobs, throwing her arms to Daisy, who hugs her tightly. Hunter cheers loudly, laughing and hitting the steering wheel.

“Mockingbird” Hunter says in the radio, “Rescue mission was a success”

“Mockingbird here” She chuckles, “We hit a rough path but now we are fine, leaving the package at the big green”

“I got a surprise for you, sweetheart” Hunter adds.

They just hear Bobbi snort in the other side. He looks at Jemma on the rear mirror and she smiles, ripping the white breeder collar off her neck. The guards try running behind them but it’s in vain, right before the van turns the corner, they see the driver pulled the windows down, throwing what seems to be a breeders collar and flipping them off.

 

* * *

 

They can hear the sirens in the distance as they stepped down the car. Steve doesn’t bother in helping Bucky since his friend looked offended when he first tried, and Natasha hugs him when she sees him. He returns the hug as Clint pats his shoulder, he noticed the bruise in his face and remembers that Bobbi mentioned them having a little bit of trouble. Tony is fidgeting with the device and Bruce is next to him talking with Maria. There are several other SHIELD agents holding guns. 

“We are set” Natasha tells him, “They got us clothes, food, guns” 

Steve nods. 

“I got medicine for your friend”

They both look at the woman who just stepped down of the van. Jemma, Daisy called her, she has a hospital bag against her chest. Jemma puts it on the ground and opens it, Steve crouches next to her and Natasha stands behind him. Jemma smiles at him.

“I stole it” She admits, and she sounds proud of it, “Your friend needs to have his bandages changed every day” Jemma says, “For at least three days, and don’t even think about wetting it” 

“I can do it” Natasha says, Steve looks at her, “My mother was a nurse, I picked up a few things” 

Jemma nods, “There is saline, antiseptic, butterfly strips, dressings – those are sterile” She looks at Steve, “Also adhesive bandages, all kinds…” She looks inside the bag, “I even got you bad aids and tape” Steve chuckles, “Oh! And this is homeostatic, is for-“

“I know” Steve says, “I was in the army… Back where we come from”

Natasha closes the bag and throws her around her shoulder, chuckling because of the Jemma tilts her head confused. They hear someone calling her name and they turn to see a man running towards them, Jemma looks at them with watery eyes and then runs towards the young man, meeting him halfway in a hug. Steve smiles and Natasha grins widely. 

“Fitz!” Jemma exclaims, “Oh, Leo” She sobs.

“Young love” Steve raises one eyebrow.

Natasha chuckles, “Love is for children after all”

Fitz looks at Jemma, touching her face like checking if she was real, “I looked for you, everywhere after-“

“I know, I know” Jemma nods, “They said that if I tried to contact anyone, I wanted you to be safe” 

“We are safe, now” He kisses the top of her head.

“Eureka!”

Natasha turns to see Tony throwing a fist in the air. Steve raises and eyebrow and Bucky stands behind them, frowning at the man. Tony announces that they should give a step back and they all do. He closes the cover from the compass and it happens. Just like he had explained Steve, the portal opens as soon as the countdown from the pocket watch reaches its end. 

“Holy shit” Hunter gasps.

Jemma squeals, “Is that-“ 

“It’s an electromagnetic manifestation of a gravitational shield” Leo says, holding her hand, “Is that where you came from?” He asks Natasha.

Natasha looks at Steve and then back at Fitz, “I guess”

Daisy chuckles, she looks at Steve, “You ready?” 

Steve nods. Bucky and Natasha meet with Clint, who had a backpack and a smile on his face. Bobbi gives them each a bag, hesitating when she notices Bucky’s missing arm, the man doesn’t say anything and grabs the bag. Jemma gives the hospital bag to Steve and without warning hugs him, Steve returns the hug and she takes a step back.

“She’s a hugger” Daisy tells him, “Thanks for helping back there” she adds, hugging him briefly, “Take care, guys” She hugs Natasha.

“I packed a gun there” Bobbi tells Clint, winking, “A bow too”

“A bow?” Bruce frowns.

“I told her my circus story” Clint grins.

“I can’t wait to hear that” Bucky murmurs. 

“We should be leaving” Tony announces, “Where’s Fury?”

“He’s with the first squad ready to attack” Maria says, “As soon as you leave…” 

Tony licks his lips, “Alright” 

He feels his toes tingling as they all stand infront of the portal, or as Fitz called it an “electromagnetic manifestation of a gravitational shield”, he chuckles. Right before they are about to jump he turns to Maria and gives her a cellphone he had taken from the base. Bruce had seen him messing with it for a few hours back in the base. Tony grins and tells Maria to press a button. She does and it emits a chirping sound.

And then, out of the loudspeakers that were all around the city, Tchaikovsky starts playing.

“How did you do that?” Maria asks, looking around her. 

“Just do me a favor?” Tony says, “Once you take over and become the first kickass president of the big US and A, get a better firewall”

Maria laughs and hugs Tony, “Thank you”

Tony’s arm rest one each side of his body awkwardly and he sees Bruce chuckle. Maria pulls back and moves to hug Bruce and the others. She is about to hug Steve when a the song reaches its climax and an explosion makes the ground shake underneath their feet. Hunter tells Bobbi something and holds her hand. 

“Is this it?” Bobbi asks, and Tony knows she is asking if Fury started.

“Ah, I might have done something” Tony says.

That’s when they see the statue of Alexander Pierce, the one that stood as high as the Statue of Liberty, crumbling slowly. Maria looks at Tony and he shrugs.

“Yes, Bobbi, this is it” Maria says.

One by one the Sliders jump into the hole. And before Tony jumps he looks back at the members of SHIELD, who offer him smiles and nods. He jumps himself, somehow he sees the hole closing behind him and then he feels something pulling him, so he lets himself go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I take a while to update because the chapters are very long! But don't worry most of the fic is already written :)


	5. How To Draw and Color In a Moleskin

Steve is glad they all wake up together. Natasha groans as she sits in the ground, Clint helps her up and they both look around. Bucky then throws him a look and they see Tony talking with Bruce a few meters from them, the black haired man nods at their direction and Steve sighs. 

“Is everything alright over there?” Steve says. 

Bruce turns and smiles, “More than” 

“Come see this” Tony calls them.

They all walk towards them, leaving their bags behind them to join the two scientists. Bucky for the first time stops looking grumpy and his expression changes to one of complete awe, mouth opening slightly as he stands next to Tony. The shorter man raises an eyebrow at him and then pats his shoulder, moving behind them so they can all see. 

There is an endless green landscape infront of them, green as far as Steve can see. He can hear birds in the distance, high mountains and under them there is a waterfall. It looked like something out of a postcard, but he doubts there is a place that looks like this in his dimension, he knows by the way he Bruce, who he knew had traveled a lot, looks astounded.

“I never think there was this much green in the entire galaxy” Clint says, Natasha elbows him and they both chuckle.

“I wish I had a camera” Steve murmurs to himself, but Tony hears him.

Steve looks at him and then looks away smiling softly. Tony opens the case and get the compass and the pocket watch, noticing the countdown started, just like he had imagined. He is about to close it when he sees the red moleskin Steve had been drawing on the day before. He takes it and grabs a pencil he had taken from Fury’s office. 

“Here” He tells Steve, who looks at him confused.

“Wh- Are you sure?” He asks, tracing his fingers over the initials of Ho Yinsen.

Tony shrugs, “I can’t really… do anything with it, you might as well put it to good use” 

Steve nods and Tony flashes him a smile before leaving. He turns to see Clint grinning at him and Bucky rolled his eyes, muttering something before he walked away from them.

“We should get a place to settle” Bruce suggests, “If we are staying here for three days” 

“I’m hungry” Clint adds.

 

* * *

 

They set a camp while Bruce, who had gotten a “science kit” from Bobbi, takes “samples” from the river flowing next to them. Tony and Clint had gone to the woods – but not to far in fear of getting lost – while Natasha checked the bag with canned food in them. Despite Bucky’s insistence in helping or doing anything really, he stays out of the way and sits on a mat in the grass. Steve throws him a few concern glances until Bucky grunts and turns so he can’t look at him, Natasha sighs and shakes her head sympathetically at Steve, who shrugs and continues arming the sleeping tent. 

“Looks like we are set” Clint’s voice interrupts.

He is carrying logs of wood and Tony, behind him, is carrying a few more. For some reason Clint has a bow and a quiver, then he remembers Bobbi told him something about that. Apparently, Clint had told them that he had been an archer back in the circus. 

“How’s the food going?” Clint exclaims, setting the campfire.

“There is a few beans we can warm up as soon as you get that fire going” Natasha answers.

Tony tries to help Clint, but he really does more obstructing so he decides to go talk with Bruce, who is still in the river. Steve waits until they are all distracted to move a big fallen tree so it works as chairs, or at least for them to lean against. Bucky is the only who sees him, the only one who knows his secret so is fine. Once he finishes he cleans his hands and sits next to Bucky feeling exhausted.

“You should tell them” Bucky says quietly.

Steve shakes his head, “I-“

“The short one don’t really look like he knows how to get us home so you-“

“He’s not that short” Steve says, Bucky raises and eyebrow and Steve sighs, “He will eventually“

Bucky hums, “Eventually”

“Look, if I tell them-”

“They seem like a nice crew”

Bucky says looking at Clint cleaning the bow while Natasha looks at him unimpressed, rationing the canned food to make sure it lasts three days. Steve sighs and Bucky smiles because he knows he’s right, after all Steve absolute shit at keeping secrets and a terrible liar too. Bruce and Tony come back and Bucky elbows him, nodding towards Tony.

“So, doc?” Clint says, “Can we drink the water”

“We only have three liters in this bottles” Natasha adds.

Bruce leaves his science kit in the floor and nods, “Not only that” he says, “The water is completely purified, the air is unpolluted… is like the whole planet is clean”

“Like no carbon footprint at all?” Natasha asks.

Bruce nods, taking his glasses off and cleaning them with the hem of his shirt. Tony claps his shoulder and then sits on the big trunk that Steve had placed there, Bucky moves away from him with a grunt and Steve elbows him. Natasha then smiles widely and pulls two cans from the bag.

“We can either eat beans or we can make a soup” She announces.

 

* * *

 

 

“We should take turns to keep an eye on each other” Steve says, taking a spoonful of beans into his mouth.

“I can go first” Clint offers, “If something comes for us, I shoot”

Natasha snorts, “You sound way to excited about shooting things”

“Speaking of” Bucky says, “Is there a possibility that there is… something here?”

Bruce looks at him and answers after a few seconds, “Well, the atmosphere conditions are perfect for any kind of life form”

“That a yes, Doc?” Clint asks and Bruce chuckles offering him a nod, “First shift is mine”

“Alright” Tony nods, “I get the second shift” 

“I can get the third one” Steve says, “Then we see about the other ones” he looks at Bruce who nods.

“This soup is top notch, Nat” Clint grins a the woman, who snorts, “How are the beans?”

“Good” Natasha says and Steve nods.

“Bruce, what do you have there?” Steve asks, looking pointedly at the bag Bruce carried from the other dimension.

Bruce looks at the bag and then at him, “Is this…” He leaves his empty can of soup in the ground and grabs the bag, “Bobbi gave it to me”

He pulls out a small box with four different glass containers attached to some kind of calculator? He frowns and Bruce chuckles softly. He explains that the three first containers have to be filled with either mud, water, rocks, leaves and the other one simply absorbs a simple of air. The calculator looking “thingy” as Clint called it, examined the samples and then gave Bruce some readings on their PH and other basics.

“You can’t find that a Earth Prime can you?” Tony says, grabbing the machine from Bruce’s hands.

The man shakes his head, “Not one that works this fast, no”

“Earth Prime?” Natasha asks.

“The one we are from” Tony nods, “That’s how Yinsen calls it in the notebook” He looks at the notebook in his lap. 

“What else do you have on that notebook of yours?” Bucky asks, “If is not the way home-“

“Buck” Steve says. 

“Is fine” Tony shrugs, he then looks at Bucky, “It has the way home somewhere, I just need to read it so I can… find it”

“You didn’t write it” Bucky raises an eyebrow.

Tony shakes his head, “A man named Yinsen” He says, “And my father, Howard Stark”

Something passes through Bucky’s expression as he tenses. Surprise maybe, or something like shock and Tony can’t understand why. That’s when he looks at Steve and the blond sighs, they all look at them confused, then Steve puts his empty can on beans in the floor and licks his lips. 

“I knew him” Steve says, “I knew your father”

Tony frowns, “Everyone knows who-“

“I mean personally” Steve swallows, “It was right before he… before he died”

“That was eight years ago, how-“

“As soon as I turn eighteen I wanted to enlist for the army, but I was too small and sickly so they turned me down” He looks at Bucky, “I decided to got to art school, while I kept on trying to enlist, I tried about a twenty times“

“Twenty two” Bucky adds.

“Bucky got in the first try” Steve says and Bucky chuckles sadly.

“Sounds like you really wanted to die for dear uncle Sam” Clint mutters and Natasha hushes him.

Steve chuckles softly, “I even tried enlisting in different states with fake names” he sighs, “One time I… I went with a fake name and I was taken to a separate room, I thought I had gotten caught but this man, he was a doctor of some kind-“ 

“Abraham Erskine” Tony says, “He was in charge of Project Rebirth, which was cancelled after their data was stollen-“ 

“The serum” Steve says, “He was working on a serum to create the perfect soldier, faster, stronger… Better”

“But it was cancelled, Steve, it was-“

“When Erskine was killed infront of me” Steve says, “Right after they injected the serum in me” 

There is a pregnant pause, in which Steve and Tony stare at each other and the others looks at them confused and concerned, because they had both risen their voices a little more than what should be considered polite. Is Bruce who breaks the silence, asking quietly what they all wanted to ask.

“Are you saying” Bruce says, “That you are…” 

“He is the only supersoldier to ever exist” Bucky says, looking at his can of soup, “And that’s all he’ll say about that”

Tony breaths out. A small puff of air leaving his nose before he chuckles, then that chuckle becomes a laugh. Steve frowns but can’t help to smile at the way Tony throws his head back, hugging his stomach.

“Holy shit, he went mad” Bucky grunts.

“Is the pure air” Clint nods, checking Natasha’s can for leftovers, “Our lungs _need_ the smog” 

Steve then presses his lips and stands. He goes to the pile of wood logs a few feet away and then grabs one, when he’s certain he has everyone’s attention he rips it in half as if it was a piece of paper. Tony’s laugh dies down and Clint let’s out a “woah”, Bruce and Natasha stare in awe while Bucky blinks unimpressed. He had seen Steve jump of an airplane without a parachute into battle after all.

“Alright, fine, you aren’t joking” Tony says, but there is no real heat in his words, “What made you so special anyways”

Steve looks at him and smiles softly, “Nothing” he answers, “I’m just a kid from Brooklyn”

They stay in silence while they finish eating. Clint finally finishes eating and leans against the tree trunk behind him, patting his full stomach.

“Guys” He frowns, “This tree trunk wasn’t here before”

Bucky is the only one who laughs.

 

* * *

 

They go to the river to bathe afterwards, while Natasha waits in the camp listening to music in her phone, that surprisingly still works. Bucky is the first one to get out, since is not a good idea to stay long near water with his bandages. He puts his pants on without any struggle, but when he’s about to put the shirt on, he doubts a little, feeling the sting when he moves the stump the slightest. Natasha pretends not to pay attention to him since it was clear he was too proud to ask for help to anyone, _including_ Steve. 

“Fuck” He mutters, sitting on the big wood log and choosing to putt he pair of boots Steve got him instead.

Natasha looks at him over her phone. The way the muscles from his arm move when he reaches for the other boot, his long hair falls on his face and he puts a lock of hair behind his ear, grunting when the hair falls into his face again. He’s got a square jaw, and a permanent pout on his lips. She blinks when he straightens showing his marked abdomen. Blue eyes find her green ones and she looks away rapidly, refusing to blush because of the sight of a shirtless man, it wasn’t the first one she saw after all.

“Nat” Clint appears behind Bucky, and the man looks away, “We finished”

She nods and stands, Clint passes her a lantern, “In case it gets dark” 

“Thanks” She takes it, “There is bug spray in that bag”

“Perfect!” Clint exclaims, reaching for it.

The waterfalls are near, a few meters away and she can still hear the men talking and she can see the fire. Natasha leaves the lap on the floor and undresses rapidly, she gets into the water, cursing when she realises is too cold. The redhead doesn’t get out until the sun begins to disappear. She took clean clothes so once she arrives to the camp she is already dressed. Tony is reading in the tent, Bruce is making some notes in the leather book and Steve is drawing in the moleskin. Clint and Bucky are talking next to the fire, which she assumes Steve made.

“I wish we had some smores” Clint says.

“Maybe in the next world we will get some” Bruce smiles at the man, “I hope there is civilization” 

Tony chuckles, “Don’t like it here?”

“I rather be watching TV” Bruce retorts.

“Natasha” Steve says, looking up from his drawing, “Can you change Bucky’s-“

“Why can’t you do it?” Bucky tells him, Clint raises an eyebrow at her and she rolls her eyes.

Steve looks at her agains, “Please?”

The redhead nods and walks towards the medical bag, getting what she needs. Her mother had been a nurse, she worked late nights at a public hospital and often had to take Natasha with her so she picked up a lot of things from her mother and other nurses. Cleaning wounds and changing bandages were easy, she had to learn to help her sister. Despite having complained, Bucky is sitting next to the fire and Clint let a lamp next to him, so she could see better since it was already dark.

Clint then goes to talk to Tony, who starts telling him about the notebook. He had been meaning to ask something about a bug that stung him and is it could be radioactive. Steve looks away when Bucky looks at him and then Natasha sits next to him.

“It will take a minute” She says, Bucky nods, looking at the fire, “It will sting a little”

She starts removing the old bandages. Bucky winces the slightest when she unveils the whole arm, what’s left from it. He waits a moment because she knows he hadn’t seen it and he wants to, he takes a few seconds and then looks at the stump, trying not to react. She looks at it herself, it’s barely a stump really, but she can see the surgery they performed wasn’t like any surgeons in Earth Prime could do. 

“Get over with it” Bucky says quietly.

She nods and reaches for what she needs. Jemma told her that she could give him painkillers but only if the pain was unbearable.

“If it hurts I can give you something”

Bucky shakes his head. She sighs softly and continues in silence, since the man looks like he would rather do that than make small talk with her or anyone for that matter. She realises she’s wrong a few minutes later when Bucky speaks.

“How do you know how to do this?” He asks quietly.

“My mom was a nurse” Natasha looks at him, “When I was fifteen my sister was diagnosed with bone cancer” she says, “It was in her leg”

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want” Bucky whispers, they are close enough for it to be useless to talk.

She shrugs, “I don’t mind” Bucky nods, “They cut half of her leg first” she continues, “Then above the knee” she starts bandaging him again carefully, “There wasn’t much to do and she didn’t want to fight anymore than she already…” She tightens the bandage.

“That’s too tight” Bucky winces.

“Sorry, sorry”

“No problem” He looks at Clint, and then back at the redhead “Are you a nurse too?” he asks, “Back where we come from?”

Natasha snorts, “No” she answers, “I wanted to but… I wasn’t able to pay for school” She finishes, “There”

“Finished?" 

“Yes, sir”

“Thank you” Bucky says.

Steve then sits next to them, while Natasha starts packing the medical supplies. Bucky smiles softly at his friend and Natasha smiles to herself pleased, she joins Clint in the tent and takes one headphone from his ear looking at the screen. Clint nudges her and points at the hour.

“What?” She asks.

“Look at the date”

Clint stands before she can actually look and goes to the other tent, where Tony and Bruce are talking.

“Stark”

“Barton” Tony says.

“Check this out” Clint sits next to him, “Natasha’s phone still works” 

“And?”

He passes him the phone and points at the date. Tony frowns and takes the phone from Clint passing it to Bruce, who also looks confused by what the screen is displaying. 

“The date’s off” Clint says, “We were three days back in Maria’s dimension, we have been here half and we were half a day back at the tundra” He counts, “That’s barely five days”

“According to this it had been… three weeks in Earth Prime” Bruce says.

Tony grabs the notebook and passes the pages. Clint, who hadn’t seen the notebook before, realises it is divided by sections marked by different coloured dividers. Tony opens it in the red area titled “TIMER” and reads something there. His expression changing into a surprised one. Bruce stands and calls the others, who gather around their tent, where Tony explains them the time theory that Yinsen talked about in his notes. Something about the wormholes and time moving around them after the first jump. When he finishes they all look at eachother confused.

“Ok” Tony sighs, “according to Yinsen’s notes, everytime we open a portal we jump into a space where there isn’t time” 

“That’s why it was night when we left the tundra, but it was morning when we arrived to Maria’s dimension” Steve says, but it sounds more like a question.

“Exactly” The man nods, “The blue blast we see surrounding us and the tingle on our feet is our particles synchronising with the remote, so time doesn’t affect us”

“So no getting old all of sudden” Bruce adds.

“Well, that’s a relief” Bucky mutters, he then looks at Bruce, “I mean it, going grey at 29…” he shakes his head and they all chuckle.

“What about where we are from?” Clint raises an eyebrow, “ if time passes differently I mean…”

“When we ‘slide’” Bruce starts, “We are in those holes for hours, even though it feels like seconds”

“There isn’t time” Tony says, “Not for us”

“So if we ever get to Earth Prime” Clint looks at Tony apologetically when the man sighs heavily, “We could arrive… years later? Even if we feel like it had been a month?”

“There is a possibility” Tony admits.

“We are immortal” Clint chants, “We are like time lords, holy shit” He grins. 

Natasha laughs, “Geek”

“When we get back, I want the headlines to read: ‘Clint Barton once a Carnie now a Time Lord’” 

Tony laughs, “Thanks for the confidence boost” he says, “I will get us home”

“That… thing you have there” Bucky says, “It looks like it’s simple yet… complicated”

“Traveling is simple, what’s complicated is reaching a destination we want” Tony nods.

“I don’t know, man, but I’m fine with a little travel before Tony gets us back to boring old New York” Clint says, “’s not like I did much back there” he shrugs.

“Same” Natasha admits, “I didn’t really have anyone”

“I had Steve” Bucky says, “I still have Steve”

Steve nods, “Yeah”

Clint looks at Bruce and Tony who stay silent for a few seconds and then Tony lick his lips. 

“I just want to go back so I can set things right” Tony shrugs, “Even if it takes us a while”

“When I go back I will ask Betty out on a date” Bruce chuckles, “Heck, I will ask her to marry me”

“You will be the world’s first interdimensional traveller, Doc” Clint pats his shoulder, “This chick will ask _you_ to marry her” 

Bruce laughs, followed by the other. Including Bucky, who chuckles softly. Tony stays quiet, not really having anything to give to the conversation. Back in New York he didn’t have anyone, not because he had lost them like Natasha and Clint, or because he was shy like Bruce. Neither of them died in the war like Steve and Bucky’s. The thing was, Tony had always being lonely. He lived alone until Pepper moved in with him once he retuned she would had probably moved on. He worked alone for years until Bruce befriended him for some reason he didn’t understand. He didn’t really have friends. All he had was his work, his inventions.

Maybe once they went back to Earth Prime he would go out and see his world, he thinks, but he doesn’t say it out loud.

“Give me OTIS” Tony tells Bruce.

“Otis?” Bruce frowns.

Tony grabs the remote form his hands and shakes it softly, “OTIS” he grins and then adds, “Object to Travel Interdimensionally with Simplicity”

“That’s genius” Clint laughs breathlessly.

“Catchy too” Natasha agreed. 

“Did you just come up with that?” Bruce asks.

Tony shrugs, “I had been thinking about a name for this thing since we left the tundra”

 

* * *

  

He wakes up all of sudden, feeling disoriented at first. When he sees Bucky and Bruce sleeping next to him he relaxes. It’s his turn to “keep an eye on them” like he said, and looking around he assumes Tony went to sleep, since he isn’t around the campfire. He sits infront of the fire and pokes it to make it grow, sighing relieved when he is finally able to do so. He takes the moleskin with him and opens the last page he was working on to finish the drawing of Maria Hill, for some reason he doesn’t want to forget them, so he had spent the evening drawing the members of SHIELD, even Jemma whom he met briefly. The serum he had received years ago gave him an excellent retentive so it was easy to remember her features.

About ten minutes pass when he hears a sound, he stands and walks towards the tent, frowning when he realises the place where Tony is suppose to be is empty. Natasha moves in the bed but doesn’t wake up and neither does Clint. He turns off the lantern, suddenly alert because of the sound coming from the river, barely audible over the sound of the waterfalls roaring. He is halfway to the falls when he remembers there was a gun under his pillow, and he’s about to return when he recognises the sound of a splash. The moonlight is generous to him, illuminating clearly the scene infront of him as he hides behind a big tree.

Tony’s head peaked outside the water seconds after he had jumped. He runs a hand through his hair and then gather water in his hands, wetting his face. Steve moves closer for some reason – because he wants to see… more – and he sees Tony’s clothes and shoes on a tree stump a few feet from him. Including his underwear. He blinks several times at the realisation that Tony is bathing nude infront of him, and then curses his libido for deciding to wake at that moment.

Tony looks at the skies for a second, water up to his shoulders. Then he starts walking towards the riverside and Steve can’t look away as he sees him fully naked. Water dripping down his navel, abdomen and…

Steve swallows. 

And it isn’t because of Tony’s large cock hanging between his legs, at that he feels a warmth spreading through his chest, running down towards lower part of his belly. Is because of the glowing blue disk that seems to be incrusted in his chest that he can’t help to gasp.

Tony turns looking at his direction, not bothering in covering himself. Steve’s back hits the tree when he hides and he bites his lower lip when Tony calls Bruce’s name. When there is no answer, he frowns walking towards his pile of clothes and puts his pants first. He turns the lantern he had taken with him and continues to dress. Suddenly, Steve remembers that Tony knew he was suppose to take the second shift, so hiding wasn’t going to do any good.

“Bruce, you there?” Tony asks again, “Shit” he mutters.

Steve takes a deep breath and shows himself, “It- It’s me, sorry”

Tony puts a hand in his chest, “Fuck” he says, “You scared me” 

“Sorry” Steve repeats.

“What the hell were you doing hiding behind-“ Tony looks at him with a raised eyebrow, “Were you spying on me, Rogers?”

Steve’s eyes go wide as plates, “Wh- no, I was- I was drawing and I heard a noise” he lets out a breath, “I thought it was something else” He says, "Like some-"

"One of those radioactive bugs that Clint swears on?"

Tony is looking at him with an amused expression once he brings himself to look up. That’s when Steve remembers about the blue glow in his chest, still visible under his shirt. Tony takes a hand to his chest and looks at Steve with a more serious expression, then he walks towards the camp and Steve follows him.

For the first ten minutes, while Tony gets himself warm, they stay quiet – since the man looks like he doesn’t want to talk about it – so Steve focuses on his drawing. This time he traces the scene he first saw when he woke up, the green trees, the clear skies, anything he took in, which was a lot. Then Tony speaks.

“What do you have there?” Tony asks, Steve looks at him and then shows him the page, “ Nice”

“Thanks” Steve says, “You know you can go to sleep now, I can take it from here” 

Tony shrugs, “This thing gives me extra energy” he says tapping his chest, “I don’t need much sleep”

“Oh” Steve nods. 

Tony licks his lips, “I would say it wasn’t something you haven’t seen before but… I would be lying” he says, Steve looks confused, “I’m not talking about my penis, Cap”

Steve blushes, although it could have been because of the fire. After a few seconds he starts unbuttoning his shirt, and Steve looks at him with a slight frown in his face, as he uncovers the arc reactor. He taps it with his fingers.

“Fuck everyone who says Tony Stark has no heart, am I right?” He chuckles nervously. 

The blond looks at him and then back at his chest, “What is it?”

“It’s called an Arc Reactor” Tony answers, “One of a kind”

Steve sets the moleskin aside and moves closer to Tony. Inspecting the object closer, his features illuminated by the blue light.

“What does it do?” 

"Keeps me alive"

Steve looks at him, "What?"

Tony licks his lips, “After the bomb detonated next to me, shrapnel got into my chest, too close to my heart” He explains, buttoning his shirt, “At the cave, with what they gave us, Yinsen performed a very… unorthodox surgery, he inserted a magnet to keep it from piercing my heart”

Steve’s eyes go wide in realisation, “The shrapnel still… in you?”

Tony nods, “After we were rescued I made this, what Yinsen had done I improved” 

“Bruce knows about this?”

Tony shakes his head, “Only you and Pepper”

Steve nods wondering who Pepper is, “Is it dangerous?” he asks a few beats later, “I mean, does it need some kind of… maintenance?” 

“Not really” The man smiles at him softly, “It’s like a battery that never wears out”

“An infinite source of power” Steve says quietly, “You are indeed a genius” 

Tony chuckles and shrugs, “Stark men are indeed made of iron” he says quietly. 

Steve remembers the phrase from Howard Stark, but he doesn’t say anything. A few more minutes pass and Steve thinks Tony had fallen asleep but the man moves next to him. 

“What about the serum?” Tony asks, “Keeps you up too?” 

Steve considers it for a second and then nods. Tony hums quietly and then looks at the skies. The blond goes back to his drawing, since Tony looks like he doesn’t really want to talk about Steve being Howard’s guinea pig.

“Did you notice the moon is bigger here?”

Steve frowns, looking up and noticing the moon does indeed look like is closer to them. He nods at Tony.

“The moon in our earth used to be this close but our earth rotates away from it inches per year” Tony explains, “Bruce thinks this earth is millons of years away from being civilized like ours” Steve nods, “Don’t worry, there are no dinosaurs here though”

Steve chuckles, “Good to know” 

Tony purses his lips, “Speak for yourself, I wanted dinosaurs” That makes the blond laugh softly.

“I like the stars” Steve mentions after a few seconds, “You can’t really see any back in Earth Prime” he adds, not in New York at least.

“Ever being to New Zealand?” Tony asks, and Steve snorts shaking his head, “There is this place called the Aoraki dark sky reserve”

“You’ve been there?”

“Pepper and I went about five months ago” Tony nods.

“Oh” Steve taps his pencil against the page, “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend” 

Tony chuckles, “Ex, actually” he corrects himself, “We broke up the day before we came here” 

“That’s unfortunate” Steve swallows. 

Tony laughs softly, “Some would say fortunate” he answers, “What about you? Any ladies… or gentlemen”

Steve chuckles, “Not really” he shrugs, “I’m not good at the whole… dating thing”

“And lucky Bucky over there?” He asks, looking at his sleeping friend.

“Buck… He had been going through a rough few months” Steve looks at Bucky, “He… came back from war recently”

Tony’s eyebrows shoot up, “Oh, I thought you had been- I mean, I didn’t know you had returned so recently”

Steve shakes his head, “I finished service about two years ago” He says, “Bucky…” He doesn’t say anything else and Tony nods softly.

Tony feels there is part of Bucky’s story that Steve won’t reveal, at least until his friend tells him is fine. He stands abruptly and takes his blanket with him, he turns to Steve who is looking at him.

“I’m going to bed” He says, “Well, tent. I’m going to tent”

Steve chuckles and nods. 

“Goodnight, Captain” He says, walking towards the tent. 

He is about to sleep, his eyes closed, when he hears it. 

“Goodnight, Iron man”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bucky's story in the next chapter! Thanks for the kudos and comments :)


	6. How To Make Friends Without Really Trying

The sun comes out once they are all awake and rested. Tony keeps them posted on the hour with the pocket watch, since it synchronies with the dimension they are in is easier to not lose track of time with it. They eat breakfast – Beans and bread – while talking about how they slept, Natasha says she slept very well, Clint insists he was bitten by mosquitoes and Tony complains about missing coffee. Bucky, who woke up in a better mood, simply shrugs at him. Steve remains quiet while they eat, and Bucky frowns at him, elbowing him when he spaces out for the second time that in ten minutes.

“What do you think the other world will be like?” Bucky asks him, looking through the moleskin pages.

Steve shrugs, “I hope people are nice” 

“Me too” Bucky agrees.

He hears Steve sigh. Every since Bucky returned to New York, he noticed Steve was always worrying about him too much, despite Bucky showing him that he can take care of himself. Bucky returns him the notebook and looks at Clint and Natasha talking about some song she had in her phone. He stared at the redhead for a few seconds, remembering how he caught her staring at him the day before, something fluttered inside his chest at the thought of her finding him attractive. Despite the fact that she had been the only one who had seen what it actually looked like.

“You don’t like Natasha?” Steve asks.

He frowns, “Why?”

“You scowl at her a lot” The blond says, “Yesterday you didn’t want her to change-“

“Is not that, Steve” Bucky says, “I- I didn’t want any of them to see it”

Steve opens his mouth and closes it in realisation. And Bucky hates himself for sounding so small, so pathetic about the subject, but fuck it, he woke up without his fucking arm. He should be angry, but for some reason he doesn’t feel angry, upset or even sad. He swallows, because he knows the reason why he’s so… Numb. He looks at Steve’s blue eyes, looking back at him with concern.

“Maybe I deserve it, Stevie”

“Buck-“

“You never told me anything about it” Bucky cuts him off, “You- you just, that day I appeared in your front step and you just… You hugged me”

He knows he sounds bitter. He knows he sounds upset about Steve… not being upset with him. He swallows and looks at where his arm used to be. Suddenly Natasha is infront of them, carrying the medical kit and looking at both of them with concern. Steve stands and lets her sit next to Bucky, so she can change the bandages. She remains quiet for a long few minutes while she unwraps his injury carefully. Steve observes them quietly, perhaps in case he has to do that for Bucky sometime, and he is grateful Steve is still with him. Clint announces he’s going to the waterfalls to bathe and Bruce agrees, and Tony says he already bathe. For some reason Steve blushes to that. Tony walks over to the tent and continues reading the notebook.

“You aren’t going?” Bucky asks, when he notices Steve staring at the man, “To the waterfalls”

“I guess” He shrugs. 

“I will join you boys once I’m done with James here” Natasha winks at Steve. 

Steve nods and looks at Bucky. He smiles softly at his friend, and Steve nods at him. He waits until he can’t see Steve anymore to nod at Natasha, who finishes pretending to be reading the tag in one of the band aid boxes. She ties her hair in a ponytail and then cleans her hands with something that smells like alcohol, then she puts on gloves. Bucky looks at the strand of hair that escapes the ponytail and she catches his eye.

“I could tie yours” She says, “Is long enough”

Bucky shakes his head softly, “It’s Bucky, by the way” She tilts her head, “You called me James”

“You don’t like being called James?” 

He shakes his head, “It was my father’s name” He says, “He was a homophobic asshole”

Natasha nods, “Are you a homosexual, Bucky?” she asks in a soft-spoken tone, there is a hint of teasing too, but he ignores it.

Bucky chuckles, “No” He shakes his head, “He hated the fact that Steve was” he purses his lips, “He used to beat me up for hanging with him or for defending him from bullies” Natasha frowns slightly, “Which happened a lot since Steve liked getting in trouble”

She chuckles, “I thought he said he was skinny… small”

“Oh, he was” Bucky nods, “That didn’t stop him”

“So you straightened your friendship by pulling him out of trashcans” She raises an eyebrow.

Bucky shrugs, “He always fought for the right cause”

Natasha smiles. A small tug of her lips because of the soft tone Bucky used while talking about Steve, in fact, it had been the more relaxed she had seen the man in the whole trip, specially after interrupting what seemed to be a heavy conversation between the two men.

“This looks good” She mentions when she fully uncovers the injury, Bucky looks at her pointelly, “It’s healing well, I mean” She adds, “Fast too”

“When it’s fully healed” Bucky starts, “How do I keep it covered?”

Natasha continues with applying antiseptic, “There are sockets” She answers, “We can get you one in other dimension”

“I want a hook” Bucky says all of sudden.

Natasha pauses mid-applying the ointment. Looking at him with a mix of shock and confusion, is when Bucky smirks slyly that she suppresses a smile herself and rolls her eyes, chuckling when Bucky does too. She goes back to her task while Bucky thinks of something else to say, the last time he had talked to a woman had been so long ago, and it was as if he forgot how to. And no, he wasn’t trying to flirt, Clint seemed like a nice guy and he wasn’t a dick. 

“Stay still” She says quietly, and he realises his knee in jumping up and down.

“How long have you and Clint…”

Natasha chuckles, “We are not an item” she says, “I met him the night of the blast” He tilts his head, “The night we first travelled”

“Oh” He nods.

“And no it wasn’t at the strip club” She adds, “I was going home when he helped me with this idiots who tried to mug me” 

“So you straighten your friendship by apprehending muggers?”

She chuckles, “I guess”

Bucky nods, “That what you did back there?” He asks with a soft tone.

“Yeah” She answers, and stayed quiet after that.

“I hid” He continues, “Mostly" 

Natasha frowns, not really understanding what he said or why did it sound like a confession. Bucky looks at her, electric blue eyes meeting her green ones, and she realises it is a confession. He takes his eyes off her and licks his lips, sighing heavily before continuing.

“Steve and I had a friend back in Afghanistan” Bucky says, “His name was Sam Wilson”

“What happ-” 

“I killed him” Bucky says.

Natasha blinks.

“We were doing a round, nothing serious, Steve was with a small group and me and Sam went with another guy” he licks his lips, “It was suppose- the streets were suppose to be safe, and suddenly the other guy was shot by a sniper” Natasha nods softly, so he continues, “I see Steve and the others running for cover and Sam pulls me into the building so we can search for the shooter, I go left, he goes right… Whoever found him, shot him, That was the- that was the plan”

Natasha begins to bandaged him again, slowly so he has time to finish his story. Bucky looks lost in thought for a while and she is worried he might have triggered something for wanting to tell her. Because for some reason Bucky chose to tell her. 

“I get to the eight floor, and kick the door down” He says, “And- It was a kid” he shakes his head, “It was a kid holding the rifle, I froze” Bucky closes his eyes for a second before opening them, “I froze and Sam entered the room by the other door”

Natasha closes her eyes because she has an idea of what happened. 

“The others arrived and killed the shooter while I kneeled next to Sam’s body” 

“It wasn’t your fault” Natasha says quietly.

“Sam was still looking at me when the medic pronounced him dead” Bucky says, “So I left” he says, “I left the room and I walked away… From everything”

“You deserted” Natasha swallows. 

“It took me two years to finally find my way back to the states” He says, and he doesn’t explain any further, “I found out Steve had moved to New York and went looking for him”

Natasha wants to ask what did Steve say. What did he Steve do when he found his missing friend in his doorstep. But she doesn’t, still Bucky seems to have read her mind because he shrugs slightly.

“Until the end of the line” He says.

 

* * *

 

 

Natasha does join them after she finishes with Bucky. They are all in their underwear so she does the same, Clint waves at her and calls her name, jumping from a high rock towards the water. 

“Show off” Natasha chuckles, “Where’s Tony?” she asks Bruce and the man shrugs.

She gets into the water, squealing when she realises is cold. She dips her head in the water and when she peaks out, Tony is walking towards them, fully clothed so she assumes he isn’t going to get in the water with them. She had heard rumours about Tony Stark, of course, the he had lived in a bubble when he was little and he was afraid of germs, that he was homophobic and that he was gay, that he faked his kidnapping, that he planned the car crash where his parents died. Everything really, but the man that she was looking at didn’t seem to be any of that. Except gay, for the way he looked at Steve’s bare chest. 

“You aren’t getting in, Stark?” Clint asks, “Water’s refreshing” 

Tony shakes his head, “I’m fine here”

“Afraid of the water?”

The man laughs, “No”

“Maybe he just doesn’t want to, Clint” Steve says.

Clint shrugs and Natasha raises an eyebrow at Steve, who simply looks away. Tony does wet his feet in th edge of the river, and a few minutes later Bucky sits on the rocks behind him. As far as Natasha remembers he hadn’t bathe since they got there, and she thinks about making a sponge bath joke when Bruce speaks.

“You can get in, just be careful with the arm” Bruce suggests.

“What arm?” Bucky retorts.

“Just let’s us see you shirtless, man” Clint grins.

“Get in, Buck” Steve says, “We won’t splash you or anything”

Bucky chuckles. He stands and manages to take the white shirt off with one arm, he wasn’t wearing any shoes so her unbuttons his pants afterwards. Clint whistles and then goes back to talk to Bruce about the samples he’s taking. Apparently, Clint was expecting to see dinosaurs for something Tony told him.

“Keep those on, Barnes” Tony says once Bucky is in his underwear, “No skinny dipping aloud in here right now”

Natasha chuckles when Steve’s eyes go wide as plates and his cheeks go pink. Bucky wets his feet first, pressing his lips when he realises is too cold, as if he was a feline of some sort, he shakes his head and goes back to sit in the rock he was before. Steve laughs and the man rolls his eyes.

Bruce finishes taking samples a few minutes later and notices the whole group is there with the exception of Tony. Even Barnes seems more relaxed than the day before, while he looks at his friend Steve’s drawings on the moleskin Tony gave the blond. He picks his science kit and leaves the three others to check on Tony, he knew Tony wasn’t a people person, everyone knew, still he always tried to not let Tony know he didn’t have to be alone. He finds the man laying in one of the tents and he was eating from a small bag of fruit – which was suppose to be Clint’s but the man said he didn’t like dry fruit – while he read the notebook that he had in his lap.

It takes Tony almost two minutes to realise he’s there, when he does he chuckles and Tony offers him a nod.

“What’s up” Tony says walking towards him.

Bruce shrugs, “Sciencing, I guess” he smiles softly, “All ready for tonight?”

Tony looks at him and nods, “Yeah”

He swallows, “We trust you, Tony” He says.

And even though he knows that Tony doesn’t believe him the man smiles tightly and nods.

 

* * *

 

They all gathered that night again, when the portal was going to open for the third time. Tony could feel the anxiety coming from Bruce, as he clutch the silver suitcase hard, Steve looked tired and his friend looked rested, Natasha looked calm, but something told him that inside she was a nervous mess, just like Clint was.

“It’s gonna be fine” Tony says, but more to himself than to the group.

The blue light reflects on their faces and Tony sees how Bruce falls in without hesitation, maybe he meant what he said, he trusts him and Tony wonders why. Steve follows and then Bucky, Clint shrugs and does the same, closing his eyes as if he’s terrified of what he will see next. Natasha turns to him and kisses his cheek, pressing her hand against his chest, right over the metal and he looks at her.

“Promise you’ll show me?” She winks and he nods dumbly.

 

* * *

 

 

Green.

More green surrounds him again. Much like before, but the air isn’t as fresh, it’s humid the weather and he’s covered in sweat. He can hear Clint complaining about the mosquitoes and Bucky grunts something about his foot up his ass, and Steve chuckle follows. Natasha is kneeled next to Bruce who is gathering the contents of one of the supply bags.

“Wh-“

“He’s fine” Steve tells him, next to him in a second, “We are fine“

“Where-“ Tony stands with Steve’s help, “Everyone alright?”

Clint chuckles, “Relax, we are-“

A twig breaks but neither of them had stepped over one. Bucky is alert immediately, like a good soldier, and Clint moves towards Natasha and Bruce, the later who looks at Tony and offers him a small nod.

That’s when he sees it.

“Holy…” Clint swallows, and he has a bow and arrow, ready to shot, but he doesn’t for some reason.

Looking for the weak points, Tony, he’s a hunter. 

“What is that?” Steve whispers.

It’s some sort of moose, with long… Horns, because is not really a stag, it has three sets of feet and his eyes are yellow. Clint pulls back the bow and shoots, one, two, three times with an inhuman speed, Natasha throws Bruce’s arm over his shoulder and Steve reaches for a gun inside the bag she was carrying. He doesn’t know he’s running until Bucky yells him to move, but is late. He falls and takes Barnes with him, the man turns and braces for the creature’s attack, Natasha’s shriek bouncing on the trees.

But it never comes. 

The next thing he sees is a man, thrusting his blade on the creature’s throat, slicing it as if it was nothing, killing it instantly.

“Buck!” Steve exclaims.

“You alright?” Bucky asks Tony, “Hey, hey, you alright?”

Tony nods, “Sorry”

“Tony!” Bruce yells from a distance, Natasha is still with him.

Clint walks around the creature, somehow amazed and scared of it at the same time, saying something like how his arrows didn’t pierce through the flesh at all. That’s when a deep voice makes him look upwards.

“You should not be wandering these woods”

The man retrieves his hood revealing his face. Blue eyes narrowed towards him and long blond hair falling through his shoulders.

“We aren’t… from around” Steve says first, “Thank you”

“What the hell was that thing?” Clint asks, walking towards the much more tall man, “ And what is that sword made of?”

“Who are you?” The man asks, “Loki didn’t send you” he adds.

“We are travellers” Clint raises and eyebrow, “Who are you and what is this place?”

The man looks at them and something changes in his expression once challenging which becomes curious and slightly confused.

“I am Thor” he says, “And wherever you are from, whichever path you took, it brought you to Asgard”


	7. How To Find Trouble in a Small Town

They follow him through the woods in silence while Thor drags the strange creature that he had tied with several roped. About an hour passes when Tony – who had been walking next to Thor – is the one who speaks, not loud enough for the others to hear but only for Thor to do so.

“What is that thing anyways?” Tony says, “and why is it so… _Scaly_ ” he adds.

Thor throws him a glance, “You really aren’t from around here” he says, “it was a bilgesnipe” Tony nods, “And they are not at all uncommon around here so we need to move faster” Thor adds talking to the others. 

They all move closer to Thor and the man chuckles noticing it. It doesn’t take long for them to see a faint light in the distance – apart from the fact that is not that far, it’s already dark – Thor had been taking them to a small hut in the middle of the woods that seemed to be his home.

“I figured you wouldn’t have where to spend the night” Thor explains, “The citadel is an hour away by foot, you can leave in the morning”

Natasha frowns, “Citadel?”

Thor nods and enters the hut, Natasha throws a glance at Tony and gestures him to talk to the man. Bruce enters first, followed by Clint, who pats his shoulder and shrugs. Bucky simply looks inside and whispers something into Steve’s ear. Compare to the outside, inside is warm and Tony wants to say something about the viking-ish decor. That is until Thor grabs a knife and walks outside the house.

“He’s got more of those” Clint announces, “FYI”

Natasha sighs, “He seems harmless”

Bucky snorts, “The guy is a hermit”

“I meant harmless as in-“

“Oh, god he is peeling the skin off the mammut!” Clint shrieks, he turns to them, “We got to get the hell outta-“

“Nat is right” Tony says, and they all look at him, “He seems fine”

Bruce nods, “And the city is hours away, we can’t just leave”

“Citadel” Bucky says, “He said citadel like he’s-“

“Asgard” Tony says, “He said we are in Asgard”

The group waits for him to say something else but he drifts off instead. Steve throws a glance at Bruce who simply shrugs and walks towards a wooden chair in the corner of the room, Natasha purses her lips and leans on the chair covered in several furs, rubbing her hands on it and smiling. Steve chuckles and reaches for the supply bags.

“We have to eat something” He says.

“I think Thor got that covered”

Clint, who had been looking outside the window for the past ten minutes, turns to them and Bucky stands next to him.

“Jesus, he’s cooking it” Bucky wrinkles his nose.

Steve blinks, “Cooking wh-“

“The beagle snoop” Bucky says.

“bilgesnipe” Tony says, snapping back to reality.

Tony walks towards Bruce and takes the silver case from him, opening it and pulling out the journal. He sits next to Natasha and starts reading, ignoring the heavy sigh Bucky lets out.

“There’s no hurry to leave” Natasha tells him.

“Yeah, I know, It’s just-“ Tony continues reading, “Asgard is not exactly in our world map”

“Maybe it is”

Tony looks at the redhead and snorts, “What do you mean?”

The woman raises an eyebrow, “You are a scientist right?” Tony nods, “There is this woman called Jane Foster, from earth prime”

“I’ve never heard of her” Tony says.

“Figures” Natasha says, “Anyways, I read this article about her work, it’s about something called the Einstein-Rosen bridge”

Tony doesn’t know who Jane Foster is, but he had heard about that from a college professor called Erik Selvig. The guy was kind of crazy but that didn’t take away the fact that he was a genius. He’s actually surprised that Natasha starts explaining – vaguely, but still – Jane Foster’s theory.

Tony opens his mouth, “You think in our earth there is an Asgard but-“

“We can’t exactly drive there” Natasha nods, “Maybe is not another dimension per se, but this Asgard and that Asgard-“

“If there is one, they are not the same” Tony looks at her, “This Jane Foster you are telling me about might have gotten close to-“

The doors open and Thor enters the hut.

“You can join me for dinner” Thor tells them. 

Steve, who had been counting the last of their provisions, looks at them and chuckles, nodding towards Thor. 

“Sure”

“You can bring the fur outside if you like” Thor tells Natasha with a small smile.

 

* * *

 

It smells like roast beef and it looks like steak, Clint thinks. Thor offers them big pieces to each, with what seem to be potatoes and some kind of spinach, a full meal that he would have dug in immediately of he hadn’t seen the creature it came from, instead he sips on the bottle of water. Thor does eat as soon as he sits, without looking if the others were.

“Thanks” Steve says, “What are these?” he asks pointing at the plate.

Thor, with a mouth full, frowns at him, “Potatoes” he says and continues eating.

Steve nods dumbly. Is Bucky who snorts and Natasha follows.

“Well, let’s eat” Clint says, taking a bite from the meat, “This is good” he says when he realises the others are waiting for him to say something.

“Yeah?” Natasha asks and Clint nods.

They all end up eating and liking the bilgesnipe meat. Tony tells Bruce about what Natasha said, and turns out Bruce does know who Jane Foster is, he knows her too and she had even been at Stark Industries a few times. They finish eating while Thor throws more wood into the fire. The meal had been nice and also was the quiet in which they ate, only the sound the cold breeze moving the trees and the water from the river a few meters of them filling the night.

“Do you live alone?” Natasha asks, noticing small lights flying over the water.

Thor seems to ignore her at first, until he sits down and picks up a flask and drinks from it. He offers it to her, she clutches the fur blanket around her shoulders and shakes her head softly.

“It will warm you up” Thor says.

Natasha accepts it, “Thanks”

“So you live alone?” Clint asks again right before Natasha gives the flask back to Thor, with her nose wrinkled.

“Not always” Thor finally says, offering him the flask, “I was exiled by the king”

“King?” Natasha frowns, Thor nods, but doesn’t give an explanation, “Why?”

Thor’s eyes turn somber and he stares at the fire for a while, “I was accused of murdering… Someone”

“Oh shit I knew it” Clint whispers and Natasha elbows him.

“But you didn’t do it” Bucky says.

Thor looks at him and shakes his head, “I would never hurt Jehanne” he says quietly.

Natasha looks at Clint who scowls confused, before neither of them can say anything Thor continues talking, his eyes in the fire.

“The king had two sons, but Queen Frigga only gave birth to one” He says, “still, Me and Loki where raised as brothers”

Bucky frowns, “You are a prince?”

Thor nods, “I was raised to be king, but I always wanted to be a warrior” he continues, “Loki… His only ambition was the throne, so after my father died of illness he took advantage of my mother’s fragile state of mind to let him… Take care of the kingdom”

Steve passes the flask to Thor and he takes it, the takes a long sip from it. Steve accommodates next to Bucky, realising he’s no longer as cold as he used to be and his head feels a lot lighter, Natasha also feels warmer, her cheeks turning light pink.

“I didn’t care about that, Loki is smart and that’s what the kingdom needed, for a while I continued my duty as a guard, I patrolled the city while Loki took care of other business, one day I was in the market when I met her” A small smile escapes his lips and Natasha smiles softly too, “Lady Jehanne wasn’t… She wasn’t like any other woman I had met”

“She didn’t fall into your arms as soon as she found out your were royal?” Natasha asked, Thor chuckled lightly and shook his head.

“It took me a while to realise she wasn’t a commoner, and I it took her a while to realise I was a prince” Thor licks his lips, “It was until Loki announced she was promised to marry him that we met as what we were… a prince and a princess”

Clint frowns, “But… you were a prince too, you could have-“ 

Thor shakes his head, “Her father refused to accept any other than Loki, who was going to be crowned as the king the day before the wedding, my mother had agreed… I never felt so betrayed” 

Natasha nods, “You eloped”

Thor nods, “We tried… we agreed” he looks at the fire, “But the night came… the night we were going to leave together and… Jehanne never arrived”

Natasha clutches the fur blanket and rests her head on Tony’s shoulder. They can all see how hurt Thor is, he sounds tired and broken, but determined to finish his story. As if he needed them to know he wasn’t a killer.

“I thought she had changed her mind, maybe… I returned to my chambers, feeling as if my heart had been broken, but… It didn’t compare to what I felt when I saw her, in my bed, nothing but a white sheet covering her”

“Her hands once warm felt like cold stones and her honey eyes were nothing but black pools, staring back at me… Just staring” Thor rubs his eyes, blinking away the tears, “I held her until the sun came out, trying to- I wanted her to- she was so cold” Thor shakes his head, “I didn’t care that I was blamed for her death, Loki took the throne from me, the crown, my name… But he didn’t know I had lost everything I cared about before that”

“I bet he told you by exiling you he was forgiving your life” Bruce says and Thor nods, “How long-“

“It’s been three years” Thor says, “too many moons to count but I do”

“I’m sorry” Natasha says, “That you lost… Everything”

Thor offers her a small nod, “You should get rest” 

“Yeah” Tony says standing up, “We have a long day tomorrow”

 

* * *

 

Thor walks with them until they can see the giant walls surrounding citadel, and well… It is just like they imagine it would be. Bucky mutters something about wanting to wake up, and Clint can’t help but make a sodom and gomorrah joke that gains him a slap on the shoulder from Natasha. Thor frowns slightly, not really understanding but he smiles softly nevertheless.

“This is where we part, my friends” Thor says turning to them.

Natasha nods softly and Tony looks at the walls before nodding absently. Thor had given them “appropriate garments” so they could go unnoticed, a few fur pieces and leather that they could sell to buy food and get refuge until their “apparatus” worked. 

“Thank you, Thor” Steve says, and Thor shakes his hand.

“It was my pleasure to help” Thor nods, “Be safe”

The thing is, that when they enter is completely different from what they pictured. It looks futuristic yet rustic, and when Tony tries to find a way to describe it better he finds himself unable to. They are stopped at the entrance but Bruce explains they are traders visiting town, which gains them suspicious looks but they allow them in nevertheless.

“You look like a fat kid in a chocolate factory” Natasha tells Clint, who can’t close his mouth as he looks around.

“This is fucking awesome” Clint explains, “Shit, look at that!” He points at a cage full of strange looking birds, Natasha makes a face when she realises they are cooking them in the tent next to it, “I want one”

“No” Natasha wrinkles her nose, slapping his hand as if he was a child.

“Me too, actually” Bruce says, Natasha raises her eyebrows, “What? As long as we are traveling we should try new things” he shrugs with a smile on his face.

“Brucie Boo, being adventurous suits you” Tony elbows him, Bruce snorts.

“let’s go!” Clint turns but bumps with someone, the man grunts and Clint apologizes.

“Keep it down” Steve reminds him, “We need to blend in” 

“I wouldn’t mind eating” Bucky says, Natasha throws him a glance and frowns slightly, because Bucky looks around nervously.

“Calm down, Buck” Steve says, noticing the way he is tense, Bucky nods but doesn’t change his posture.

“Maybe feeding the beast will calm him” Tony says, he claps Bucky’s shoulder and the man clenches his jaw, “Sorry”

“Buck” Steve calls. 

“What” Bucky answers flatly.

Steve sighs heavily and Bucky throws him a strange glare. Tony clears his throat awkwardly, uncomfortable about the silent argument he apparently started, Natasha and Clint Exchange looks and the redhead rolls her eyes muttering “boys” before starting walking, that’s when Bruce – who hadn’t stop walking – calls them from a feet away.

“Well, you boys can stay here, I’m taking Clint and Bruce to eat” Natasha says walking pass Bucky, shaking he head slightly.

“Wh-“ Bucky mouth gapes like a fish out of the water.

Clint shrugs, “What the lady said”

 

* * *

 

Bucky knows Steve is upset with him. And for some reason so is Natasha, who hadn’t bother to talk to him or look at him since they sat on the market to eat, strangely enough, is Natasha upset at him that bothers him the most. He knows Steve is upset because he likes Tony Stark – God knows why is that, but whatever – but the redhead has no reason whatsover, unless she too _likes_ Stark.

Ah. That is what bothers Bucky. Back at the lake he swore they had… A moment. He shakes the silly thought from his head.

“You okay there?”

He turns to Clint and nods.

“You eating the bones?” Clint asks.

“Let him eat, Clint” Natasha says, taking a sip from the cider they had ordered.

Bucky pushes his plate towards Clint and nods softly. He looks at Natasha who had been looking at the scene, but the woman looks away, to answer something Bruce had asked at the same time. That’s when Bucky notices a man looking at him. At them. He’s blond haired, broad shoulders and a scar on his left cheek, Bucky had seen him before, when Clint had bumped into him before, whether it was the same man or no, the way he’s looking at him – suspiciously “secretly” – makes him feel nervous. Alert.

“Would you like to dance?”

Bucky turns his head towards the woman next to him. She smiles at him, and Bucky licks his lips before opening his mouth. But then he realises she’s talking to Clint, who takes a long sip of his cider and – to their surprise – smashes the goblet on the floor. The woman laughs as he stands and takes her hand, the rest of the place goes as loud as Clint and music starts.

“Jesus” Bucky mutters. 

“He is pretty drunk” Bruce says, “I think I am” he looks at the bottom of his goblet, “Did I drink all of my… thing?”

Tony laughs, “Yeah, and mine” he says.

“I can get us more” Steve offers, Bruce nods fervently and Tony shrugs, “’Kay” he nods, “You want more, Buck?”

Bucky shake his head, “Still have here”

Steve nods and leaves. 

“Let’s dance” Bruce stands, staggering so evidently that Natasha holds his wrist, a smile on her face.

“Easy there, doc” She chuckles, “I’ll go-“

“I’ll go with him” Tony offers, standing up so quickly he blinks hard, Bucky realises he’s also feeling the effects of the cider, “Um- I mean, unless you-“ 

Natasha waves her hand, “I see a couple of maidens already preparing themselves for you” she winks.

Tony laughs and Bruce throws an arm around his shoulders as they make their way through the small crowd dancing to the lively music.

“Tony didn’t want to be left alone with you” Natasha mentions.

Bucky looks at her for a few seconds and then shrugs, because he knows that. Natasha stands up and Bucky feels a sting on his chest when he thinks she’s leaving, but instead she drags Clint’s chair towards him and sits, her knees bumping against his tight. He side glances at her, taking a sip from his cup. She then says something but the music had gotten loud and he couldn’t hear her, he leans towards her a little and so does she.

“You shouldn’t be so hard on him” Natasha repeats, hot breath against his temple, “He’s trying”

Bucky looks at her then and shakes his head, because she got him all wrong. Natasha thought he was still upset about Tony not having an idea of how to get them home, because yeah, it bothered him, but that wasn’t the reason he had been… Rude at him previously. It was because Steve like him. And he knew Tony Stark wasn’t a good enough for his friend.

“You got me all wrong, doll” He tells her, taking a sip from his cider.

Natasha, instead of arguing, laughs. Bucky can’t help to smirk softly at that, even though he doesn’t know what was so funny.

“Doll” Natasha shakes her head, she takes his goblet and drinks from it, “I can assure you I’m not-“

He leans towards her and cups her jaw. Natasha blinks and frowns slightly.

“Are you gonna kiss me?” She whispers, the playful smile back on her lips, but her voice shaking slightly.

“Wouldn’t you like that” Bucky says, he then shakes his head “There is a man behind you” Natasha is about to turn but he stops her, “He’s been following us since the afternoon”

“Why would someone follow us” The redhead says, “Maybe you are just paranoid” she raises an eyebrow.

He licks his lips, Natasha’s eyes following the movement, “Or maybe someone is following us”

She looks straight to his eyes, green eyes against his blue steel ones. And for a moment Bucky considers kissing her, because yes he would like that, but then Natasha is pushing back with a raise eyebrow.

“The cider is mixing badly with your pain meds” She says, “I’m going to get you some water”

“Nat-“ He tries calling, but she disappears among the crowd.

“Well, this is awkward”

He turns to find Clint looking at him. His shirt is backwards and his pants are undone, Bucky doesn’t need to be a genius to realise what had happened to him, and no, he wasn’t robbed. Tony and Bruce arrive before Clint says something.

“What the hell happened to you?” Tony asks.

“Oh, my god, Clint! You were assaulted!” Bruce whines.

Clint smiles widely, eyes glazed, “Yes, I was” he nods.

Bucky and Tony laugh at that. Steve and Natasha arrive after that.

“What happened to him?” they ask at the same time.

“Never mind” Steve shakes his head when he realises it, “Good news, I got us a place to stay.

Bucky smiles at him.

 

* * *

 

The hut is warm and spacious. They give Natasha one of the beds, while Clint and Bruce share the other one. Bucky and Steve share the couch while Tony insists he can sleep peacefully on the chair after he is done with his reading. They are sound asleep when Natasha opens her eyes. She hadn’t drink as much as the men did and her sleep had been light since they traveled the first time.

She notices Tony had fallen asleep with the notebook on his lap, the silver case still slightly open on the floor next to him. Next to her, Bruce and Clint are deeply asleep and so is Steve, in the couch infront of them, with Bucky next to him. The man is covered in a thin layer of sweat and he’s moving slightly, wincing as he does, but still sleep. He had asked her to give him pain meds before sleeping but Bruce – in all his drunken wisdom – told him it wasn’t a good idea with the alcohol he had ingested, Tony added that the medication maybe wouldn’t have any more effect on him anyways, so she didn’t. Now, looking at him, she feels guilty not to had given him anything.

A shadow passing through the window over the couch calls her attention, but before she can wake the others the doors bursts open. 

“Clint!” She yells, at the same time she jumps towards Bruce and Clint.

Tony jolts awake and so does Steve. Four men enter the room, they are armed and the attire they wear indicated they are some sort of knights, one of them is holding the woman Clint had met at the bar by the hair, she is crying and her face is bloody, Natasha is about to speak but ends up shirking when they slide her throat, blood reaching Natasha's cheek and neck.

“Natasha!” Tony screams.

Bucky launches at one of the men and Steve does the same, she notices Tony trying to pack everything inside the silver case and she kneels to help him, while Clint gets one of the men off them. Is when one of them grabs her by the neck that she finds her voice again.

“Ja- Bucky!” She shouts.

Bucky turns to her, eyes wide, and gets the man off her and she freezes when she sees his bandage is bleeding, she can feel Bruce tugging from her dress, but she jumps towards Bucky. 

“Get out!” Bucky says, pushing her and trying to fight one of the men off her, “Listen to Bruce!”

“Nat!” Bruce is yelling at her too, “Get out of here!”

Steve throws one of the men out of the window, the glass shattering, Bucky then pushes her towards the window, as more men enter the room.

“Natasha! Run!”

She nods frantically and jumps outside the window, landing on her hands and scraping one of her knees, She sees a horse - the knights had arrive in them - and jumps on one of them, kicking it softly before the animal starts running, she tries to look back but she hears Clint screaming something that sounded like “keep going”, so she does. Her eyesight gets clouded and she realises she’s crying, but she clutches the reins so hard she feels them digging into her palms, and keeps running, leaving the big walls that surround the city, towards the woods Thor had found them first.

“Thor” she gasps.

“She’s there!”

Natasha can hear horses and several men yelling behind her. She's deep into the woods when the saddle slips off the horse, taking Natasha with it. She stands up and runs not caring about the horse.

Natasha runs for what seem hours, until her lungs feel like they are about to burst and her legs are burning. Her cheeks are cold and her tears are already dried. She trips and falls several times, the last time she trips with a log of wood but is glad when she feels the wet, cold stones with the tip of his fingers, ahead she can see the faint light of Thor’s hut.

“Thor!” She yells with all she can.

Natasha feels her legs give up on her and she falls, her cheeks hitting the cold stones under her, her eyesight gets clouded before everything goes dark. She wishes last, that Thor finds her like he found them before.


	8. How To Accidentally Safe a Life

The sound of metal against metal wakes him up. The dim lighting making impossible for him to figure out where he is or where is the sound coming from. Is when Bruce tries to cover his ears that he realises he’s chained to the wall he was leaning against, making it almost impossible for his hands to reach his face. The muffled noise becomes clearer as the seconds pass and he realises a familiar voice is calling his name.

“To- Tony?” He shakes his head in an attempt to clear his sight, “Wh-“

He recognizes Tony, who is a few feet from him, they are separated by a narrow hall and what looks like prison bars. The other man is also chained into the wall and he looks beat up, he wonders if he looks the same and his answer comes when he tastes the blood on his lip.

“Oh, thank god! Bruce!” Tony sounds relieved, “Are you- Bruce, are you listening to me? Are you hurt?”

“Give him a few secs, man” 

Bucky’s voice is raspy and he sounds tired, breathing in pants as he throws his head back like he’s struggling to catch his breath. Bruce manages to sit, still struggling with seeing with how dim the cell was.

“Hey, doc, you alright?” Clint’s voice asks.

The man is on the same cell as him, barely a feet from him and also chained to the wall. Bruce winces when he sees the deep cut on his forehead, somehow it is stitched up, like he had someone do it for him.

“Doc? Bruce?” Clint repeats.

“I’m- I’m alright, yeah” Bruce nods, “Where are we?”

He looks around him but is too dim to see, and without his glasses Bruce’s eyes are only so useful. Tony shakes his head softly.

“Here”

Clint is softly sliding his glasses towards him with his feet. Bruce struggles to reach them and sighs relieved when he finally puts them on, only to groan when he realises one of the glasses had chipped. He nods at Clint and the man smiles softly.

“What happened?” Bruce asks, "Why are we here?"

“We were taken here after…” Tony trails off, maybe he can’t remember or he just doesn’t want to talk about it, “They took Steve” he says instead.

Bruce’s head shoots up, he hadn’t even realise that the blond wasn’t with them. Tony tells him that he woke up before the two of them but Steve was gone when he did, a guard was with him but as soon as he saw him wake up the man left.

“We are in the king’s dungeons or something” Clint says.

“Thor was right… His brother is a maniac” Bucky mutters.

Bruce notices him wincing when he tries to move, “How are you feeling?”

“They bandaged me again” Bucky says, “Like they are trying to keep us alive until… who knows” he shrugs. 

“Natasha?” Tony asks, “Anyone-“

“She’s gone” Bruce says, a relief in his voice that the other men don’t miss.

The other men wait for him to keep talking but after a few seconds of silence Clint scoffs. He looks at him and then glances at Tony, who is wearing a concern look in his face.

“What’s going on, Doc” Clint says, “ _What_ did you do?”

“I- OTIS needed to be safe”

Tony and Clint look at him and he swallows. Bucky’s ears perked up like a dog’s. Bruce sighs deeply, rubbing his eyes tiredly before he speaks again. He tells him that when they were attacked he figured it was about the remote, he saw Tony scrambling on the floor trying to put the things inside the silver case and then Natasha started helping.

“As soon as more men entered we knew we would be captured” Bruce licks his lips, “Tony wasn’t going to be able to fight them, neither would I” Tony scoffs, “Clint was struggling and three already had Steve and Bucky…” Bucky clenches his jaw, “So I- Natasha had more chance“

“You figured Natasha had more chance to what?” Clint says.

“Escape” Bruce looks at him, “With the remote”

Tony’s eyes widen in realisation and Clint tilts his head confused.

“You _asshole_ ” Bucky grits, “You gave her the remote, you made her a target”

“It was not my intention”

Tony looks at him and then at Bruce, “But-“

“I slipped it in her pocket and told her to run” Bruce admits, “If I told her she- she would have try to- to give it in exchange of our lives or something”

Clint growls, “What if they saw you!? They are probably after her!”

“No one saw me!” Bruce says defensively, “You wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t told you!”

Clint stands up, “She- She’s alone there! You don’t know what could happen!“

“I had no other choice!”

Tony rubs his eyes and then his temples, feeling a headache coming. Bruce and Clint arguing in the background didn’t help at all, Bucky realises that a guard had arrived and was probably listening to them.

“Enough!” Bucky says, Clint and Bruce look at him startled, “Just…” he sighs, “He’s right, Clint”

“I had to” Bruce adds, “When we get out of here we are going to need Otis to-“

“ _If_ ” Bucky cuts him off, “If we get out of here”

“So much for our ‘sliding’ adventures” Tony adds meekly.

Bruce looks at him. He doesn’t say anything, he doesn’t argue with Bucky because he’s realistic, and the chances of them getting out of that cell – of that castle, of that world – were as narrow as the hall dividing them.

“Nat will get us out of here” Clint says quietly.

Well, hope is the last thing that dies, Tony thinks.

 

* * *

 

“… The lights guided me to you, I guess I thought you weren’t the kind of people to find trouble easily but I was mistaken…”

A small chuckle follows the phrase Natasha didn’t quite get. She tries to speak but her throat feels dry – like she hadn’t drink anything for days – she closes her eyes and asks for water, at least she thinks she does. A warm, big hand sneaks to the back of her neck and helps her up, she’s too tired and thirsty to fight it so she lets it and is more than grateful when cold water wets her lips.

“Drink slowly”

She looks up to find grey eyes looking at her with a deep frown and on top of it a nest of golden hair.

“How long-“ she rasps out.

“A couple hours” Thor answers, “Drink”

“Thor” She whispers against the cup, “You-“

“What happened?” He asks.

Natasha sits up on the pile of furs she had been resting – Thor’s bed, she realises when she looks around and notices she’s in his hut – She also realises she has been partially undressed, she covers herself with one of the furs and looks at Thor, who looks away at the window noticing her movement. He stands and walks towards the window.

He turns to her, “I apologize” he says, “You were covered in ivy”

“Ivy?”

“A poisonous plant that surrounds my land” Thor explains, “For trespassers”

She nods and touches the bandages in her arms, torso and legs. She’s covered by greenish goo, an ointment with medicinal smell. She thanks Thor quietly and the man simply nods, not looking at her.

“My friends were taken” She says suddenly, remembering what happened.

Natasha sits and takes a deep breath before she begins to explain Thor what happened, his face turning darker and darker as she approached the ending of her story. She isn’t sure why until she remembers her brother is the king, the same man who probably ordered his men to capture Clint and the others.

“And then I saw the river… I remembered the lights from the night before, so I followed them”

“Devas” Thor says, she gives him a questioning look and he throws her a glance before turning his back at her again, “Elven spirits that inhabit the Woods, they are harmless”

“Ah”

Of course, magical spirits.

Thor then turns to her, “Why would Loki capture your friends?”

“I don’t know” She answers sighing heavily, “We are-“

“I found this in your pocket” Thor shows her the device, OTIS, “Perhaps this is why?”

Natasha tries to stand up to reach for it, but her legs are weak and she trips. Thor catches her mid-air and clenches his jaw, gripping OTIS in his hand when Natasha tries to take it from him again. She tries to remember the moment where she put it in her pocket but she can’t, then she recalls Bruce asking her to leave, to run as fast as she could. 

“Bruce” she covers her face with her hands

Thor helps her walk towards the nearest chair, the previous scowl in his face transforming into a concerned expression. 

Natasha looks at him, “It’s the reason why we are here” Thor frowns, “We sort of… slide here?” She sighs, “Look, is not important, all you need to know is that is very powerful”

“And Loki wants it”

She stands up, supporting herself in the arm of the chair and looks up at him defiantly, stretching her hand towards him with a hard look on her face. Thor clenches his jaw, but still gives her OTIS. She searches for any damage and nods happily when she finds it intact.

“When you arrived I found you because of the light”

“What light?”

“There was a… Blue light” Thor explains, “it lit up the woods, like thunder, but it didn’t come from the sky”

“That’s where we came from” Natasha tells him, “Well, kind of”

“How would Loki know about it?”

“I…” She trails off, “ _Fuck_ , Tony” she mutters, “How could I forget I- Tony- I mean, the one who created this has the… instructions manual” she looks at Thor, who blinks confused, “There is a book of everything you need to know about this”

Thor nods, “And now Loki has it”

Natasha nods slowly. For a minute, both remain silent, unaware of the war inside each of their heads. She has no idea where she stands if she was being honest to herself, there was no way she could help her friends and the countdown for the portal to open again was reaching it’s end. If her math wasn’t as rusty as she thought, they had about six hours to reunite.

“Natasha” The redhead turns to him, “I have shared with you and your friends my story, and now you have done the same” he says solemnly, “There is nothing you can do for me, but there is still hope for you”

He stretches his hand towards her. Natasha frowns slightly, but she then understands what Thor is saying and takes his hand, squeezing lightly.

“I have been hiding long enough” Thor says.

His lips curve upwards when Natasha looks at him surprised. Thor starts to walk around the room, gathering several weapons he has around, he offers her clean clothes – once she’s dressed she makes a mental joke about looking like Xena, the princess warrior – he throws a dagger at Natasha, which she catches and unsheathes, examining the sharpness. She offers Thor an impressed look.

“This is what I’m talking about” Natasha says.

Thor chuckles, “You are going to like Sif, then” he says, “Let’s go”

He walks outside the hut and whistles. Natasha follows him with a frown in her face.

“Who’s Sif”

“A friend” Thor answers, “A good friend”

 

* * *

 

The pain was excruciating, but every time Steve looked down at his body he saw no sign of where were they hurting him even though it felt like it came from everywhere. He prevented himself from screaming in case Bucky or the others were listening, he didn’t want them to try something that might get them killed. He tried to count to thousand in his mind trying to focus on something else in vain.

A cold hand grips his shoulder and he opens his eyes, shuddering. He’s panting and his sight is blurry, but he can see a shadow looming over him. His nails scratch the cold surface he’s laying in when the figure grows bigger, moving closer and closer to him. 

“Why-“ he tries.

A deep chuckle make the hairs of his nape stand. 

“You are strong” The voice is deep, and whoever he is sounds amused, “Most men would have already begged for their life”

He manages to sit up, hands shaking as he leans against a near wall. Closing his eyes as he feels another wave of pain running through his body, it feels like needles and knives slashing his skin.

“Look at me” The man says.

Steve keeps his eyes closed.

“Look at me!”

A kick to his abdomen makes him curl in a fetal position before the man throws another blow hits his face. A heavy boot is what he sees once he opens his eyes to look at him, defiant as he could, eyes narrowed and nostrils flaring. He could feel his left eye throbbing and blood dripping from his nose. 

“Who… Are… You” He grits.

The man grins widely, “I am Loki, King of Asgard”

Loki walks from one side of the room to another, throwing glances at him. He finally stops infront of a huge window that Steve guesses is on top of the building they are at – Loki’s castle, his mid supplies, he is after all a king – it would be useless for him to try to escape, he thinks cursing mentally.

“Where are they” He ask, kneeling despite the pain, “What did you-“ He winces again.

“The others?” Loki finishes for him, he chuckles, “Alive” he smirks, “For now”

Loki walks towards a glass table – which wasn’t there before – and Steve recognizes Tony’s suitcase. He panics remembering Thor’s warning about Loki and the power that OTIS had, he stands as fast as he can but Loki appears infront of him as someone takes a hold of him.

“What the-“ His eyes move from one Loki to another.

 

Loki – all three of them – laugh and he can’t help to feel like he’s in some kind of hyper-realistic dream. Then he remembers Thor, the strange creature in the forest, the magical lights in the river, and that he wasn’t home anymore. He remembers for some reason Bucky’s favorite movie, The Wizard of Oz, and then looks back at Loki - the one he though was real. 

“The spell must have worn out” Loki purses his lips.

Yes, he was losing his mind. Loki walks towards the glass table and opens the suitcase, taking the compass, Steve exhales when he realises OTIS is not inside. He closes his eyes and remembers how Bruce put the remote in Natasha’s pocket during the struggle.

“Not even my most valuable experts understand what this is”

Steve looks at him, Loki is holding the notebook now, showing him a drawing of the remote.

“I don’t know what-“

Loki strikes his face. He falls to his knees and looks at him again.

“What. Is. This.”

“I don’t know”

Another blow to his face. He spits blood out and then looks at Loki again.

“I don’t-“

“I would consider the next words that leave your mouth, mortal” Loki snarls.

The pale man grips his jaw and makes Steve look at him.

“ _Fuck you_ ” Steve grits.

And then everything goes dark.

 

* * *

 

“Everyone understands what they have to do?” Thor asks.

Natasha looks around the room. Sif – a real life Xena, in her opinion – nods, Frandall offers her a dashing smile and a wink, making Sif roll her eyes. Natasha puts her hand on Thor’s arm and thanks him, before The Warrior Three – Thor had told her there were three of his most loyal warriors, one who died in battle years ago, Sif and Frandall where the ones left, also the only friends he had – leave the hut and climb on their horses. Natasha gets to ride with Frandall, who smirks at her and she can’t help but roll her eyes, a small smile on her face before Sif smacks the back of the mans head and tells him to not lose focus. 

The plan was simple. Thor and Sif were going in first to clear the way for Natasha and Frandall, Thor also wanted Loki. The man was clear when he said to leave the mad king to him, and his friends didn’t argue.

“We will get your friends safe, My lady” Frandall tells her.

Natasha could just hope it was a promise.

 

* * *

 

The tapping sound was driving him mad. He opens his eyes and glares at Clint, who had been trying to break free of his cuff for the past few minutes. Clint notices his glare and shrugs but doesn’t stop trying to pick the lock. Bucky notices the guard that had been standing at the end of the halls doesn’t even move, like he knows it’s in vain and they will never escape, or maybe he can’t see them with the dim lights. Bruce had been silent since they took Tony minutes prior, which was the reason why Clint had already started to freak out.

“You alright?”

Bucky looks at Bruce, “’m fine” he answers, wincing when he sees a cut in Bruce forehead from when he tried to stop them from taking Tony, “It feels crowded” he adds, he feels like he’s unable to breath.

“Try to stand, walk a bit” Bruce says.

“Okay, I give up” Clint whispers.

They turn to Clint.

“I have picked a million locks but this one just won’t- cooperate” he says. 

Bruce manages to chuckle.

“We are going to die here” Bucky mutters, he doesn’t miss the way Clint winces.

Bruce sighs tiredly, “Look maybe we should have a little faith in-“

A loud thump interrupts them, and then they see the the shinny helmet the guard at the end of the hall was wearing roll between them in a comical manner. Clint follows it with his eyes and then looks at Bucky.

“Natasha” Bruce says.

The two men look at Bruce and then at the woman. She is holding a lantern, bright enough to illuminate the halls, Bucky notices another man, blond beard and hair, is dragging the unconscious guard – Dead, he can’t help to think – away.

“Natasha!” Clint exclaims cheerfully.

“Keep it down” Natasha says, but still reaches for her friend, to hug him despite the bars between them.

Bucky can’t help to feel a little bit jealous.

The man blond man comes back and put his hand on Natasha’s back, a gesture that was unnecessary in Bucky’s opinion.

“My lady, time is running out” He whispers.

“You brought Robin Hood with ya” Clint snorts.

Natasha rolls her eyes, she pulls from the heavy lock, “Okay, we need a hammer or something to-“

“We could use this” The blond man, dangles a pair of keys in front of her.

“Thanks, Frandall” Natasha takes them.

Bucky purses his lips as he stands, and he hears Clint chuckle. He throws a glance at the man – Frandall, not Robin Hood – who grins widely at him as if he was happy to see an old friend.

“I knew you would come for us” Clint says, hugging Natasha tightly. 

Bruce snorts, “He really did”

Natasha chuckles, “Thanks” she says pulling Bruce in for a hug, “For… trusting me with it” she pulls back and Bruce smiles shyly.

Frandall opens Bucky’s cell and frees them from the chain. Clint winces when he sees his reddened wrists and Bucky tells him he shouldn’t have try to break free before. Clint is about to say something when Natasha hugs Bucky, the man hugs her back awkwardly and pats her back after a few seconds of not knowing what to do with his arm. He pulls back quickly and looks away.

“They took Steve and Tony" 

Natasha looks around, “Frandall”

“If there is anyone else, Sif will find them” Frandall says, “We need to move”

“We can’t leave them or the suitcase, everything is there” Natasha explains, gripping the man’s arm.

Frandall looks at her and then at the other men. He sighs heavily. 

“One of you come with me, the others leave with her”

“I’m coming-” Natasha starts.

“Only you know the way out” Frandall explains, “I’ll take that one” he nods at Clint and offers him a sword.

Clint grins widely, “Alright”

Bucky puts a hand on his chest, “I’ll go” he says, Frandall raises an eyebrow, “Steve’s my friend”

“But the sword!” Clint almost whines.

“Very well” Frandall says, “Natasha will take you outside” he turns to Bucky, “Let’s go” 

 

* * *

 

Steve regains consciousness slowly. He tries no to move, not until he is sure he is alone. When he realises he isn’t – there is someone walking behind him – he curls his fists ready to attack. When he feels them approach him, he turns, grabbing a neck and pinning the body against the nearest wall. He blinks several times when he realises is not Loki this time. The hand around the thin neck softens but he still holds the woman against the wall. 

“Please” She whispers, “I’m not going to hurt you”

“Who are you?” Steve looks around, the woman shakes her head, “Answer me!”

“I’m- My name’s Frigga”

“Frigga…" He blinks several times, "Thor’s mother”

The woman’s eyes widen, and when Steve let’s her go she follows him across the room.

“Thor is alive? Did you see him?”

Steve turns, “You betrayed him” he remembers, “You-“

“No! no, no, never!” Frigga shakes her head, “It was Loki, his magik is… he turned it evil, as everything that touches it”

The room is windowless and there is no sigh of an entrance, or an exit for that matter. Steve turns to Frigga, who is looking at him with concern, he then sees behind her the bed he had been laying on, and a few empty vials in the small table next to it.

“What did you give me?” He asks walking towards her.

She gives a few steps back, like she’s afraid of him, and glances at the table. Steve stops when he realises she has a dagger in her hands, he frowns when she leaves it on the bed.

“You were poisoned” She explains, “Before, in the other room”

“The pain…” He says.

Frigga nods, “I gave you the antidote”

Steve nods, “Give me the knife”

Frigga hesitates before Steve walks towards her and takes it. He feels his chest tighten when he notices how shaky are her hands.

“I took this” Frigga says, pulling the compass from her pocket, “The other things are in Loki’s possession, the silver box has the other… everything is in it”

Steve takes the compass and opens it, “Is not working”

“Does Thor live? You saw him, didn’t you?” Frigga asks, Steve nods and he feels his chest tighten when the woman smiles sadly, she shakes her head, “Loki was with his council members, they were talking about you and your friends” He sees her hands shaking, “If you leave now you might live“ 

“I won’t leave my friends” Steve says, he takes the woman’s shaking hand’s between his, “Please, help me”

Frigga looks at him, “If you see Thor tell him I didn’t do it” Steve frowns, “The night he was going to leave I woke up to Loki in the feet of my bed, that’s all I remember before I… I saw the princess lifeless body infront of me”

“Thor said she was… Poisoned” Steve licks his lips, “Loki did it” Frigga nods.

“Loki’s magik is dangerous and evil, it takes control of people” Frigga explains, “He used me to push Thor away, to make me give him the throne”

“Why didn’t he use... Magik against me or my friends?” Steve frowns.

“It doesn’t work like that” Frigga shakes her head, “It makes people into empty puppets he can use however he wants, to say whatever lies he wants but nothing else, but the truth can't be spoken"

“What if he is using you right now?” He gives a step back.

Frigga shakes her head, “He doesn’t know I’m here” she says, “He can’t know”

A fear creeps into Steve’s body, he wonders about his friends, if Loki had made them do something or if he tortured them like he did with him. Frigga puts a hand in his shoulder and his sight clouds for some reason.

“When you wake up” Frigga says, her voice muffled, “Take the dagger and run, leave as fast as you can”

“My… My friends…” he whispers, the room around him falling apart, like he’s in a dream, “Help me” 

“I am..."

Steve's eyelids feel heavy, "Let me help you"

Frigga smiles sadly and then shakes her head,"I’m never going to be able to leave” She says, “That is my real punishment” Steve frowns, “By killing the woman that held my son’s heart, I killed my son too” He can see the tears streaming down her cheeks, “I deserve to be here” she whispers.

“Steve!”

He opens his eyes and looks around the room. A light is blinding him and he can hear something metal banging against more metal, Bucky’s voice is the only thing that he recognizes and he reaches for the man. The other room, Frigga, it had all been a dream. Or magik.

“Buck?”

“Where did you get this?” Bucky yells, “Where’s the case?”

Steve blinks at the compass in Bucky’s hand and then he realises he is holding a gold dagger – just like the one in his dream – next to him, in the glass table, there are several empty vials. It hadn’t been a dream, it was magik. Bucky frowns and he realises he said it out loud.

“We are not in Kansas anymore” he looks at Bucky, Bucky smiles despite himself and hugs Steve tightly.

“Did he got his brain scrambled or something?”

Steve pulls back and frowns a the man behind Bucky, who looks like he had been in a fight. Is when he sees about three men behind him unconscious that he realises he indeed had, and he had won. 

“Thor’s friend” Bucky explain.

“I’m Frandall! Of the Warrior Three from As-“

“No time for introductions” Bucky interrupts annoyed, “We need to leave, we weren’t exactly quiet” 

Steve nods and follows them. Frandall looks at the dagger in his hand and frowns.

“Queen Frigga lives?” Frandall asks, “That was a gift from Odin to Thor, he said he gave it to his mother-“

“I don’t know” Steve says, “It was like… A dream”

Frandall smiles sadly, “She still uses her magik” Steve frowns, “She can see your dreams, and leave objects-“

“She said that Loki made her do all the things she did“ Steve interrupts.

Frandall stops walking and turns to him.

“It makes sense now” he says, “Thor’s going to-“

“Silence” Bucky mutters, stopping them.

Frandall unsheathes his sword and is about to attack when someone pins Bucky against a wall and puts a knife against his throat. The woman narrows her eyes.

“He’s with us, Sif!”

Sif turns to Frandall, “Where’s Thor”

“He went to look for Loki”

  
“Queen Frigga lives” Frandall says, Sif scowls, “Gamora must be in danger too”

Bucky asks, “Gamora?”

Sif turns to him, “Loki’s wife, he married her for her lands” she sighs, “I’ll tell her all, you take them out of here”

Frandall nods, “Time is running out”

“You keep saying” Bucky mutters.

 

* * *

 

Tony has been looking at Loki pace back and forwards for the past minutes. When he was taken he metally prepared himself for some torture – he had already mentioned that to Loki, which gained him a kick in the face but that had been it – but Loki seemed more interested in him explaining the content of the notebook.

“I’ll ask you one more time” Loki says, “Where is it?” 

Tony looks away, “Up your ass”

Loki’s nostrils flare and his eyes go wild, like some kind of animal with rabies. Tony bites his tongue not to say it out loud, because his face hurts and he wouldn’t really like another blow to his face okay. Loki walks towards him and crouches next to him, his face way too close to Tony’s.

“I already got rid of the other one” Loki grits, Tony looks at him jaw locked, trying not to give away his shock, “So unless you want me to-“

“Move away from him”

Loki tenses over Tony, and he turns slowly to find Thor pointing at him with a sword. Loki stands slowly – jaw clenched and nostrils flared – and faces his brother, who walks closer to him. 

“ _Brother_ ” Loki starts, “Fancy seeing you here”

“You killed father” Thor starts, “You turn mother against me, you took my crown, you sent men to kill me”

Loki smirks, “So?”

Tony glares at the man, he can see Thor’s pain because of the betrayal and the admission. But what seems to hurt him the most is how guilt free Loki seems. Thor grip on the sword softens and Loki seems to notice, because he pulls out a dagger from his sleeve.

“He has a dagger!” Tony yells.

And Thor pounces over Loki like an animal. The other man, even though slimmer than Thor, is fast and he evades the attacks too easily. Tony tried freeing himself from the cuffs he has while the other two seem distracted. 

“Father was a fool!” Loki spits, “Mother was blind to see it!” He continues, evading one of Thor’s attacks, “Oh and Lady Jehanne” he laughs, “that mewling quim was going to ruin it because of you!” He smirks, “Do you really think mother would kill her knowing it would destroy you?!”

Thor’s eyes are wide with shock and realisation, “You-“ 

“Yes, Me! Mother was nothing more than my puppet” Loki says, “Oh, poor Frigga will live the rest of her days locked up and drowning in guilt”

“You are a monster!” Thor throws the sword and grabs Loki by the collar, punching his face as hard and as many times as he can.

Tony can’t help but wince at the sound of Thor’s fist clashing with Loki’s cheek bones, jaw and nose. And he doesn’t understand why but Thor suddenly stops – perhaps to look at his brother’s face – and once he does Loki turns his face to the side and spits blood, only to look at Thor again. The sound of heavy steps outside of the room makes Tony turn, the guards had probably heard Thor and Loki and now were trying to enter the room.

“ _Why_ Loki?” Thor asks, not paying attention, “You are my brother” He says, “I loved you”

Tony can’t help to feel his chest tighten at the recent memories of Stane. Betrayal of a person you love cuts deeper than any sword or any dagger, it hurts more than an broken nose or jaw. 

“Love?” Loki starts laughing in a cruel manner, he tries to move closer to Thor’s face and then spits, “I _hate_ you”

Thor’s face goes blank and he tenses for a second, before he shakes his head softly and stands. 

“Everyone will know who you truly are by the morning” Thor assures him.

He walks towards Tony and – with impressive, superhuman – strength, breaks the cuffs he was wearing. He puts a hand on his shoulder and asks him is he’s hurt. The world slows down once he looks behind Thor. Loki stands and grabs one of the daggers he had dropped on the floor while Thor held him against the floor.

“Thor! No!”

Thor turns at the same time he pushes Tony, who falls backwards as he looks towards the door. He hits the back of his head and then blinks several times, not sure of what had happened, a hand pulls him up and helps him stand. That’s when he gets to digest the scene in real time.

Loki lies in the floor, his chest and his hand covered in blood holding a dagger in the same state. There is a woman, greenish skin – not in a green being pale state, but green – covering her mouth in shock, yelling for the guards. Next to him another woman is helping him stand. He can’t ask her anything, because he can see and hear Thor frantically calling the name of the woman in his arms. Frigga. Who he cradles carefully as blood pours from her back.

“My son” Frigga whispers, “My sweet boy” She cups the man’s face, her hand shaking as Thor covers it with his own, “I am so… so sorry” 

Thor shakes his head, “It wasn’t you, it wasn’t you” He says.

“What…” Tony asks as someone pushes him.

“We need to leave” the woman next to him says, walking towards the silver case and putting everything inside it. 

“Who are you?” 

“Sif” She answers, pushing the case against his chest, “Your friends are safe”

He sees how the woman’s hand falls and Thor shakes her shoulders trying to wake her up. The woman with green skin shakes her head and she, for some reason, apologizes to Thor, who hugs his mother for the last time. Sif pulls from his arm and they leave the room, passing several guards.

“What happened?” Tony asks, walking at a fast pace to catch up with Sif.

“Loki was going to stab Thor and Queen- and Frigga…” Sif shakes her head, “What matters is that Gamora knows everything and tomorrow so will Asgard”

“Gamora? the green woman”

Sif frowns and nods, “Don’t you have people of all colors in your earth?”

Tony chuckles and nods, “Not green though”

Sif smiles softly, “Queen Gamora is a good queen, but under Loki’s thumb she would have been unable to rule like one”

“Silver lining” Tony mutters, he opens the case and peeks inside, “Everything’s here, where are the-“

“Tony!”

He is unable to finish. Natasha hugs him tightly, followed by Bruce in the world’s most awkward triple hug, he feels Clint grip his shoulder and he turns to find him grinning. He can see Bucky and Steve - who looks like he was beaten up – talking to a blond man who was definitely with Sif.

“Frandall” She says.

“What happened?” The man asks.

“Queen Frigga is dead” Sif says, “Loki too”

Frandall looks down, “Thor?" 

“He’s… As fine as he can be after losing everything” She says quietly, “Queen Gamora saw it all, he is free”

Natasha walks towards them as Steve gives Tony the compass, which had stopped pointing north from they were standing. Frandall smiles charmingly at him and Bucky mutters something under his breath that sounds like he wants to leave quickly. Sif smiles at Natasha when she sees her too, and congratulates her for a good fight. 

“My friends" 

The group of people fall silent when they hear Thor’s voice, turning to the entrance of the castle to find the man walking towards them, he looks beat but not defeated, much like his two warrior friends feel.

“King Thor” Frandall greets. 

His smile falls slightly when Thor shakes his head.

“But Loki…” Sif starts, she throws a glance to the others before she falls silent, “This is your…” she trails off.

“My home is now out there” he says, “Today it was clear to me that I was a warrior, never a king” He explains, putting a hand on Sif’s shoulder, squeezing lightly, “You had said it yourself, my friend, Queen Gamora is a good queen”

“Much like your mother, Thor” Sif nods.

Thor smiles and joins their foreheads in an oddly respectful manner. He turns to Frandall and does the same before looking at Natasha. 

“I belive this is yours” He gives Natasha a page from the notebook, “You are the Sliders this page talks about, right?” 

Natasha nods, smiling softly. She gives Bruce the page and the man chuckles. 

“Thor Odinson”

Thor turns and sees Gamora followed by her royal guards. Sif and Frandall kneel immediately and then Thor follows, the Sliders – Tony was really starting to like that – look around dumbly before Sif signals her to do the same.

“Please, don’t” Thor blinks as Gamora walks towards him and asks him to stand, “None of you should bow down for me” She adds, looking at Sif and Frandall.

The warriors stand and Gamora offers them a smile. The queen walks towards the Sliders – Clint can’t close his mouth and Bruce looks equally amazed, Bucky surprisingly manages to look unimpressed, which impresses Tony – Steve and Natasha exchange looks.

“Thor tells me hat you were travelers” Gamora says, “From a distant place”

Tony swallows and nods, “We… Actually gotta get going” Bruce elbows him and he winces, his ribs feeling tender.

“So I heard” She throws a glance at Thor, “My guards have recovered the belongings… Loki stole from you” The guards start leaving their bags infront of them, “I included a few items you might need for your travels”

“Thank you” Steve smiles.

“Captain” Tony tells Steve, “the- um- countdown is eighteen minutes" 

“Captain?” Gamora raises an eyebrow.

“Is like a nickname” Tony says quickly, “He’s- um- not an actual one” he adds, “I think”

Bucky chuckles.

“My guards prepared horses for you” Gamora offers, “Sif and Frandall will scort you to your location”

“Thank you, Queen” Sif says.

Gamora nods and then turns to Thor. They exchange a few words and Thor seems to accept some kind of apology she offers. After that they climb into the horses the queen offered them and they leave as fast as they can. They stop near the woods, a few meters from the castle, when Tony yells them to stop. Bruce can feel the electricity in the air, the hairs in the back of his neck and arms standing because of the force of the electromagnetic field that is about to form infront of them. Frandall is the first one to see it, they know because he climbs down his horse not bothering to stop him first which Natasha does.

“Sweet Odin”

Like lighting, much like Thor had described it to Natasha, it appears a few meters from them. Steve can feel the pull from it and he can almost cry of how relieved he is that they could be heading home. You never knew.

“He has nothing here” Tony says suddenly next to him.

“Huh?” He says dumbly.

“Thor” Tony explains, adjusting the contents of the case, “He has no one”

Steve frowns not understanding still. He sees Clint and Bruce already packed up and ready to jump, Bucky is helping Natasha to pick up the rest of the bags.

“He could come with us” Tony adds, he is still tinkering with the silver box, he says it casually, like he is not even aware he is saying it.

“You think?”

Tony frowns, “Huh?”

Steve rolls his eyes, “Thor” he says, “You think he can come with us?”

Natasha walks towards them, like she heard them say it but can’t really believe it. Clint and Bruce exchange looks and then Bucky shrugs. Natasha suppresses a smile. Clint snorts and secures his bow – and arrows – in his back, patting Bruce’s shoulder and kissing Natasha’s cheek.

“See you on the other side” He says.

Bruce follows him into the portal, “Don’t take long”

Tony nods, “See you there" 

Steve smiles softly as they disappear into the portal. 

“Thor! You coming?!” Natasha yells.

Thor tilts his head.

“Look, man, is a once in a lifetime travel experience” Tony adds, securing the silver case, “You might or might not come back”

Thor smiles, “It would be an honour to travel with you”

Sif and Frandall smile at their friend, who turns to them and hugs them tightly. Frandall then walks towards Natasha and kisses her on the lips, the redhead yelps but then throws her arms around him. Steve and Tony don’t miss the way Bucky’s eyes widen and then he rolls them annoyed.

“It’ll close in two minutes” He mutters before he pats Steve’s shoulder and jumps behind Clint and Bruce.

Steve smiles at Tony and then jump too.

“You can hold my hand if you are afraid” Natasha tells Thor in a teasing tone. 

The man laughs, “Never afraid” he says, before jumping inside.

Natasha turns to Sif and Frandall and they offer her nod in sign of respect. 

“We will tell stories of how the Sliders saved Prince Thor” Sif yells. 

“And how they were led by a fearless warrior called Natasha!” Frandall adds.

Tony holds Natasha’s hand and smiles nervously at her, “Ready?”

Natasha nods, “Always ready”

 

* * *

 

That was the last time Sif and Frandall saw Thor. But just like they promised, they told for many centuries the story of the travelers that came with the blue thunder, the travelers who called themselves the Sliders.


	9. How to keep in touch with your loved ones

_Try to remember the kind of september…_

Maria smiles at him brightly as her slender fingers dance over the piano keys, her soft voice almost lullabying him to sleep. Tony smiles back and tries reaching for her, he stops when he realises the stretch is making his chest hurt, cutting the air supply from his lungs. 

“Tony! Jesus fuck!” 

He snaps his eyes open to see Bruce and Natasha hover over him. Steve appears and asks Bruce what had happened, Tony wants to know too but he can’t speak and once he tries nothing but an animal groan comes out of his throat. Closing his eyes and opening them again, he reaches for his mother once more before he remembers where he is. Bruce is yelling at Natasha to give him space as he rips Tony’s shirt open, Tony tries stopping him in vain, his voice not leaving his lips as he gasps for air. His chest feels tight, like something heavy is sitting on him and then he remembers the Arc Reactor.

“Wha the hell is that?!“ Natasha asks.

“Jesus, Tony” Bruce grits, ripping a package of bandages open with his teeth, “Nat, bring more!”

“You said landing was safe! You said-“

“Now!" 

Natasha kneels next to him resting his head on her lap while she hands Bruce more medical supplies. What happened? He tries but the redhead hushes him.

“He can’t breathe?” Steve asks.

“What is wrong with it?” She asks, “Bruce!”

“The-“ Tony gasps for air, “Br- uce!”

Bruce licks his lips, “It’s not… On, Tony! You landed on top of a fucking car, I think it's broken!” 

“Where’s the blood coming from?” Steve urges.

Natasha shakes her head, “His side, it’s glass, it’s just glass!” 

Just glass. He tries saying, but again nothing.

“Doc! Someone’s coming, hurry!” He hears Clint.

There is something wrong with the Arc Reactor, he knows it.

“My- Pull” Tony mutters, “Out” 

Steve and Bruce freeze. He does his best to nod but Bruce shakes his head, ranting about how he doesn’t understand, is Natasha who reaches for the reactor and pulls, sending a wave of pain that makes him arch from the ground. 

“Sorry! Fuck! Tony, I’m-“ 

“Twist” Tony shakes his head, “Out”

Natasha nods frantically before she throws a glance at Bruce and Steve, and then back at him. With trembling fingers she reaches for the reactor again and when Tony feels the warmth of her hand in his chest, she looks at him and he nods. She closes her eyes and twists the metal lid pulling it out slowly. 

“There’s a- a- it looks like- like”

“What Natasha!?” Steve urges. 

“It’s burned out! I don’t know!” Natasha says, “It looks like it burned out!”

Tony reaches for the case then, “Watch” 

Bruce scrambles to open the case and when he finally does it, he hands him the wrist watch that Tony had taken off days prior – Bruce barely remember Tony taking it off, but he remembers him looking at it the night they left New York – Tony taps the back of it, where the initials H. S. are but the man doesn’t understand. Steve takes the watch and turns it looking at Tony as if asking permission, when the man nods he opens the back of it. He throws the watch inside the silver case. 

“Is this it?” He shows him a small squared object.

Natasha doesn’t wait for instructions. She takes the burned out one out and replaces it.

“Tony!”

He blinks and notices his vision is blurring.

“Who are you?!”

He turns his head and sees him. Clint and Bucky say something, and the stranger gasps once he sees him. No, it’s not a stranger. He can feel his chest moving again, his throat finally opens up letting air inside his lungs.

“It’s in!” Bruce says, “Tony, Tony, listen to me…”

Tony reaches for the man that had just arrived.

“Yin… Sen”

And then he falls into darkness.

 

* * *

 

_Beep._

_Beep._

There is something familiar about waking up slowly to the sound of an alarm. Of course, Tony being a workaholic knows very well what is like, as he comes to conciousness he realises he’s not in his room – he scolds himself because he should really stop thinking it was all a dream – instead, he is in what looks like a hospital room, but the equipment surrounding him doesn’t seem professional enough.

_Beep._

_Beep._

_Beep._

“Wha-“

He looks down at his body and realises he’s naked from the waist up, wearing nothing but his underwear. He remembers the pain from before and takes a hand to his chest, sighing relieved when he sees the Arc Reactor glowing brightly, it’s scratched but he knows is working perfectly as it makes the almost pleasing humming sound of an well oiled machine. The voices outside the room he is in make him alert, and he stands from the bed, grateful that his legs don’t give in – he can’t say the same about his side, which stings when he moves – and looks around for something he could use as a weapon, choosing the lamp in the nightstand. The door opens and he takes a swing.

“Tony!”

The man grabs his wrist just in time to stop him. He drops the lamp and take his hand to his side, making sure the bandage is not bleeding.

“Ste- Steve?” He licks his lips, “oh thank god!” He sighs relieved.

Steve takes the lamp from him and sets it aside. Bruce comes behind him and the first thing Tony notices is that his glasses, that had been broken before, are in perfect condition.

“You are going to open the wound” Steve purses his lips, “Sit slowly” 

“You alright?” Bruce asks, putting the lamp back to his place.

Tony nods slowly, “What happened? Where are the others?”

“They are fine” Steve says, “Sit”

Steve helps him sit back in the bed. He looks around while Bruce closes the door behind them, noticing that the room is full of what seem to be personal belongings. Bruce whispers something in Steve’s ear and then throws an apologetic glance at Tony.

“Be right back” Bruce announces, leaving the room.

The open door give Tony a look outside the confines of the room. He turns to Steve, eyeing him suspiciously.

“This isn’t a hospital”

Steve chuckles softly, “No, it isn’t” he offers him a clean set of clothes, “You hit yourself pretty bad when… We arrived”

Tony nods remembering vaguely. Steve doesn’t take his gaze off him while he dresses until Tony reaches for the cotton pants he had laid on the bed.

“So… How did we end up in this place?” He asks, then he looks around, “house, whatever…”

He finishes dressing and raises an eyebrow at Steve, who remained silent.

“A man found us” Steve says, “Um- he’s- um- a scientist, like you”

Tony tenses, “What do you mean?”

Steve takes a deep breath, “His name is Ho Yinsen” Tony’s eyes go wide, “Bruce is with hi-“

Steve doesn’t finish talking, because Tony storms out of the room because Tony storms out of the room before he can end the sentence.

 

* * *

 

 

“… The energy coming from it was too strong for my equipment not to pick it up! Lucky for you there’s an electric storm tonight, I normally turn it off… I wouldn’t have found you otherwise”

Bucky blinks slowly and then turns to Clint, who looks equally bored out of his mind. The man – Yinsen, he asked them to call him – had been rambling for the past two hours about a storm that night, Bucky could hear the thunder from outside, he had already mentioned but Yinsen just kept going on at it and all he had to do was pretend to listen. Clint, on the other hand, didn’t even bother in pretending to pay attention instead he tinkers with a rubik’s cube he had found a few minutes before in the scientist’s desk, under the huge pile of papers that is.

“So you just got an alarm from that computer” Bucky points at the giant computer in the corner of the room, “And you found us” he raises an eyebrow.

Yinsen blinks, eyes darting from Clint and back to Bucky. He presses his lips and takes his glasses off, cleaning them with the hem of the pullover he’s wearing just to put them back on and squint at them. Clint snorts at the gesture, saying Bruce does the same. Bucky hums unimpressed. 

“It’s not a simple computer, Mr. Barnes-”

“Bucky’s fine” He says for the fifth time.

“-It’s a modified and enhanced electro-magnetical activity detection equipment” Yinsen says, “Is normally used by… Storm chasers” He makes airquotes with his fingers, Bucky does snort softly this time, “I’ve been studying the phenomenon in order to find a source of power strong enough to-“

The man stops himself, eyeing them in a suspicious manner. Bruce arrives that moment, having left to other room to change his wet clothes. It had been drizzling when they arrive to that dimension, once they got to Yinsen’s laboratory/home it was pouring so hard it seemed the sky was falling.

Bucky clears his throat, “So… The…” he waves at OTIS, who was in the table behind Yinsen.

“Mr. Yinsen” Bruce says, “We were wondering if you could tells us what happened to it”

Bruce takes it as Yinsen turns to him.

“The previous times we’ve used it, it remains on, but now it doesn’t seem to work” Bruce explains.

“Since you’re a scientist and all” Clint adds, leaving the cube behind him.

“Tony has awaken, my friends” Thor’s voice booms around them as he enters the room.

Bucky looks at Natasha, who enters behind the man. He ducks his head when her eyes find him staring and turns to Yinsen and Bruce, who have been talking for the past few seconds about OTIS. He catches a few words but then grunts when he can’t understand much.

“So it’s not damaged” Bruce sighs relieved.

“Mind speaking normal talk now, doc?” Clint cuts in, “For us non-sciency people”

Natasha chuckles. Thor seems more interested in the computer behind Yinsen and Bruce.

“It’s charging, much like before” Bruce says, “Except this time it used more energy, since Thor came with us”

“I apologize” Thor says immediately. 

Natasha pats his shoulder, “Not your fault” she smiles, “At least we know we won’t get stuck here” Thor nods, “No offense, doctor” Yinsen waves her off.

“It might take a few days to… recharge, though” Yinsen says. 

The Sliders all look at him at the same time. Yinsen chuckles.

“Well, it did use a lot of energy after being passive for a while” Bruce says before they can complain, “I think it will take five to six days this time” 

“And so on?” Bucky asks.

“And so on” Bruce nods.

“Tony” Natasha says.

They turn to see Tony and Steve entering the room. Tony stops in his tracks and stares at Yinsen, eyes wide and mouth agape, as if he saw a ghost. Bucky scowls as he walks towards Yinsen and swallows audibly.

“Is he alright?” Yinsen asks, giving a step back.

“Tony” Bruce stands in the middle, “Just remember he’s not the same” he says slowly.

“The possibilities of finding ourselves or a second or third or hundredth version of ourselves or someone we know – alive or dead – in other dimension is five to a million” Tony says.

“You said he hadn’t hit his head” Bucky mutters to Steve. 

“Page two-hundred eighty seven” 

Tony takes the notebook from Bruce’s hands and looks through the pages. He then gives the notebook to Yinsen and points at a sentence in it. Yinsen takes the notebook and reads it, aparently several times because it takes him more than a few seconds to do it, he gives the book back to Tony except for the small squared pictured that worked as a bookmark. He stares at it a few seconds more and once he finished he looks at Tony. 

“You are telling me I built this” Yinsen says, “I mean- Me in another… world”

Tony nods, “You would be meeting yourself if…” he trails off.

Steve and Bucky exchange looks and Clint purses his lips. Thor blinks confused and Bruce shakes his head at him softly, telling him he will explain later. A knock on the door makes them all jump.

“That must be the thai food!” Yinsen exclaims, practically running towards the door.

 

* * *

 

 

“This food of Thai is magnificent!” Thor exclaims, “I haven’t feast this well in what feel ages”

Clint nods enthusiastically, taking more food into his mouth. Natasha chuckles and throws him a napkin. She then turns to Tony, who is looking at Yinsen intensively, while not doing anything else than poking his food. Natasha clears her throat, but when Tony doesn’t pay attention to her she kicks him soflty. The man turns to her and purses his lips and when Natasha raises and eyebrow, he simply shrugs. 

Steve observes the interaction and then turns to Yinsen. He understands why Tony is acting so oddly, seeing someone that you know is dead must be… Strange. Like everything that has happened the past few days. He clears his throat. 

“So… Mr. Yinsen”

The man, who had been on a desk a few feet away from them reading Tony’s book while tinkering with Natasha’s phone and OTIS, lifts his gaze towards them. Bruce had asked Tony to let Yinsen examine OTIS, despite Tony being hesitant at first. Something about the technology not being from that dimension and the probability of it causing a ripple effect of some sort (theory which was debunked by Bruce minutes later).

“Found anything interesting?”

Yinsen’s eyes widen, “Well, of course, Mr. Rogers” Clint snorts, “Every single page in here describes the process of creation of this device”

“Otis” Tony says, the first words since the food arrive, the older man frowns, “Object to Travel Interdimensionally with Simplicity”

Yinsen stares at him for a few second before chuckling, “Of course” he looks at OTIS, “Otis” he repeats.

Steve licks his lips, glancing at Tony, “Mr. Yinsen-“

“Just Yinsen, please”

“Yinsen” Steve nods, “Did you find anything that tells us about… How to communicate with Earth Prime” He sees Tony frown.

Yinsen seems to consider his answer for a few seconds. Silence falls upon the group, only the sound of thunder and rain outside against the ceiling. Tony also looks deep in thought, before both men look at eachother and then at Steve.

“The phone”

They say at unison.

Steve and Natasha frown, “What?”

“The phone it’s –let’s say, synchronize with Earth Prime, right?” Tony starts, “And that means it moves at the same speed, unlike us”

“So if you manage to find a grid in which it can find a signal compatible with the ones you have in your earth, you could send messages… But they have to be short, coded just in case… Morse maybe?”

Steve, who has been staring at Yinsen, turns to find Bucky standing from the couch has been sitting on. Tony and Yinsen echange impressed looks, while Clint’s jaw drops. Bucky realises they are staring and lifts his gaze, frowning at them.

“What?”

“How do you even know that?” Bruce asks, noticeably shocked.

Bucky glances at Steve and then back at Bruce, “It’s part of what I did back in the army” he explains, “Communications… Some espionage”

“That sounds fucking cool” Clint elbows Thor, who makes an agreement nod.

Steve’s lips quirk upwards and Bucky goes back to eat in silence.

Clint raises his hand making them turn to him, “But why short messages only?” he asks. 

Yinsen sighs, “A longer message would require more energy, more speed, which might distort it-“

“Like that game where you says something and then someone tells it to someone, and so on, at the end the message is completely different” Bruce cuts him off, Clint purses his lips. 

“Morse?” Steve says.

“Or just something that… Only someone from there can undestand” Tony scratches his beard, “Yinsen, can you find us a grid?”

Yinsen takes a deep breath, “It might take me…“ The man looks at Tony, “I can” he nods.

 

* * *

 

Much like Tony did when he submerged himself in his work – thing that he knew Pepper hated but he never changed – Yinsen locks himself in his laboratory, leaving them to wander around the house freely. Clint and Natasha found a spot in the living room, watching television. Bucky went directly to his room to sleep, while Thor and Bruce did the same. He wasn’t sure where Steve went, so he goes to find him.

There was a gym in the house, despite Yinsen not looking like the type who exercised often, or at all. So when he finds Steve there, he thinks about making a joke about it but Steve sees him entering and speaks first.

“Why do you hide it?” He asks. 

He punches a heavy looking bag a few times. Tony can’t help but stare for few seconds, before he remembers Steve asked a question.

Tony frowns, “Hide what?”

Steve turns to him and looks pointedly at his chest. It should make him feel uncomfortable, but there is something about Steve that tells him he can trust the man, despite having met him for so little time.

“Why do you hide it from others when it’s what changed you” Steve stops punching, his breath coming out in harsh pants.

For a few seconds Tony feels insulted for some reason, and then he realises Steve is not only talking about his arc reactor, Steve is talking about the serum. The secret serum formula that his father died for. He walks towards Steve, who remains still infront of the bag, and stands a few feet away from him. He wants to say that no one died for his Arc Reactor, but he can't say the same about the plenty of weapons he created before.

“I felt guilty at first” Tony says, “That it kept me alive when I- My other inventions had killed so many others” He looks at Steve, “But… If I just lay down and cry about it, nothing would change” He says. 

“So you changed” Steve says quietly, “After that you… You started doing things to make the world a better place” Tony licks his lips, “You did- you are good” Steve looks at him, “But everything that happened to me, what your father and Erskine did for me, I just… Hid it away”

Steve runs a hand through his face and hair.

“Did you want people to know?” Tony asks. 

“I don’t know” Steve shrugs, “What do you think your father would have wanted?” 

“Oh, he would have definitely wanted people to know about you” Tony chuckles, and Steve follows, “You went to war, Steve” His tone more serious, “That’s… Not nothing”

Steve is not looking at him then. He’s looking at his hands, where his knuckles are red and his hands are shaking. Tony wonders how does the serum affects Steve regarding pain, if he feels it a hundred times more but doesn’t care, or if he feels pain at all. Maybe he’s used to it, like the constant itch in Tony’s chest that he doesn’t mind unless he thinks about it. When he told Pepper about his Arc Reactor, she asked about his pain first, then then she asked kinds of questions about it, Tony hadn’t been able to answer most of them at first, she had always been a quick thinker, and what he didn’t tell her she often found out anyways.

“Wait” Tony looks at Steve, “When you said you hid everything about Rebirth… did you mean it literally?”

Steve bites his bottom lip, “When Erskine was killed” he starts, “He… He asked me to take a disc with all the data on his projects and hide it”

“Holy shit, Steve-“ Tony’s eye widen.

“I was just following orders, I didn-“

“So the data was never stolen, he just- He gave it to you?”

“If I hadn’t- He knew that there was- that someone had infiltrated SI” Steve stammers, “I-“

Tony puts his hands on Steve’s shoulders, “Steve, it’s okay, I understand” he says, Steve looks at him apologetically, “This disc... It had everything about the projects SI did right?” 

Steve frowns, “Yeah, I… I didn’t get to see them but Erskine said-“

“Steve" Tony grabs his face, making Steve look at him, "where did you hide it?”

Steve isn't sure why is that information necessary, perhaps once they got back to Earth Prime - Because he needed to believe they would eventually - But Tony looks at him with a glint in his eye. And when Steve tells him, he leaves the room without saying word. Steve sighs, looking at the empty room, wondering what was that feeling that lingered on him whenever he looked into Tony Stark's eyes.


End file.
